A Tenacious Flame
by RebelliousWolf
Summary: Fionna is upset when Gumball breaks her heart. In order to cheer her up Marshall Lee suggests to visit someplace dangerous, like the Fire Kingdom. However, their plans get changed on the way there and someone new, yet dangerous is about to make her heart flicker. (cheesy beginning? yes, yes it was) [FIONNA X FLAME PRINCE love story]
1. Chapter 1: A New Adventure

[I DON'T OWN ADVENTURE TIME CHARACTERS. All rights belong to the creator Pendleton Ward(:]

Night paints black in the sky where the sun once was over the land of Ooo, perfectly matching Fionna the human's mood. A piece of Prince Gumball's pink hair is held in one hand as the other is wiping her uncontrollable tears. Cake helplessly continues comforting her best friend, thinking of solutions to at least soothe the pain of Fi's broken heart. Nothing came to mind, and so, she can only say softly, "Please, Fi, please stop crying sweetie."

Her sniffles are her response as they filled the silent air...until someone crashed the party.

The guy would never make a silent entrance (only to scare Cake) and always found a way into the treehouse. His company is enjoyed depending who and what mood they were in, so far only Prince Gumball is an one of the people who hasn't cracked a smile when he arrived. His long black bangs sweep across his forehead and his green skin refelcts in the light as he broke his way in.

He bared his teeth, found his target, and got ready to po-"MARSHALL LEE NOT NOW!" screams Cake and slaps the bad boy with her claws out. "Can't you see something wrong in this situation?"

The bad boy sneered and folded his legs, he was too busy planning to scare Cake that he didn't notice Fionna sobbing in front of her. "Where's Fi?" Cake turns, "Oh...what happened? Did 'Gumwad' break this strong heroic girl's heart?"

"MARSHALL LEE!" hisses Cake and Fionna begins sobbing louder.

Embarrassment shown on Marshall Lee's face and thought to himself _So you really are a girl Fionna._ He floats down next to her and places a hand on her head, "Hey, hey, don't be sad Fi."

He is dumbfounded in what to say, but an idea comes to mind, "Say, stop crying for a second and I'll tell you something we can do to cheer you up!"

She looks up with red eyes and tries her hardest to hold in the sob trying to escape her throat. "W-W-What?"

"Remember the first time you met me and I told you I messed 'round in the Fire Kingdom?" Cake's ears perked up. "Why not go mess around there with me, you and Cake?"

"We'll burn alive if we step on the ground you fool!" exaggerates Cake while stretching and waving her arms in the air.

"I know, dangerous right?" he laughs in a low, cheerful voice that always contained some sort of mischief in it. "Ah, don't worry, I'll find a way, tomorrow when the sun goes down, 'kay Fi?"

The girl squeezes the pink blob she held, looked down at it and then loosened her grip. "Yeah...I think I'd like that," she forced a tiny smile.

"Great," he begins to make his exit, "Cheer up Fi, Gumball ain't the only guy to like. Hell, he's hardly a man anywa-" he pauses when he met eyes with her glare. "You can like me," he smirks and she looks away. Defeated, he takes his leave by swooping down to nip at Cake and then laughing away.

"He may be right Fi..." says Cake after regaining her breath. "Maybe this is what you need, a little adventure right?"

"Y-Yeah..." Fi responds hesitantly, places down the wad and pulls her knees. "This...is what I need."

...

Marshall Lee didn't need to make an entrance for his arrival is known. The sun's streaks stretched over the luscious green grass of Ooo and made its way to Fionna and Cake's treehouse before disappearing. Warmth trickled on Fionna's cheek and faded away quickly even though she wanted to bathe in it more. However, when the warmth of the sun is replaced with the cool wind of night it is the exact time for Marshall Lee to show up.

"The Vampire King has arrived," he cooly greets. Cake rolls her eyes and Fi makes an effort to grin.

"You're here, but how would we get there?" asks Cake while raising an eyebrow.

He holds out a metal pan with mitts and light flickered on the edges of it. Fi and Cake peeked in, "Flare?" (a.k.a. "Flambo")

The small fire lion takes a peek out of the pan and attempts to spit a tiny ball of fire at Marshall Lee. "Hey! My girls! This hottie sweet-talked me, but rudely snatched me up, isn't that rude?!"

Fi glares at the vampire who awkwardly smiled, "Hey, hey, she'll be the way into the Fire Kingdom, I had a reason to do what I did."

"You guys goin' to the Fire Kingdom? For what?!"

Fionna smiles, "Adventure!" She decided to put her worries behind her today, and enjoy time with her two best friends. Seeing that she has Cake and Marshall Lee silently grin to themselves, knowing it was a good idea.

"But, how you going to get us in?" asks Cake.

"Like this!" Flare mumbles a chant under her breath as ancient letters that are unable to be read by the human and cat appear. Suddenly, Cake and Fi were painted a light blue.

"All right, you guys are prepared," he pushes the pan to make Flare jump out. Fi immediately reached out to capture her, she flinches, waiting for a third-degree burn to ruin her skin, but no pain came.

She gasps, "Wow! Flame shield, cool!"

"I wanna touch her, I wanna touch her!" Cake carefully places her paw on Flare's head. "Ooh! Marshall, you don't need it?"

"I'll get it when we're near the entrance, let's take my shortcut while the night is young."


	2. Chapter 2: Love Burns

Cake walks ahead of Fionna and Marshall Lee with Flare sitting on the top of her head. The vampire walks next to Fionna rambling about the recent party he has crashed, how his mom bothered him when he steps into the Nightosphere and all of his adventures the past week. Fionna only caught up with the first two since her mind wandered off on thinking of Prince Gumball.

Her cheeks turn slightly pink with frustration, but they quickly return to normal when shrieks from nearby are heard. She gasps, "Trouble!"

"Fire!" yells Cake as she morphs into a giant while Fionna hops on her back. "I smell fire Fi...right at that village of goblins! Oh man it's burning bad! Flames everywhere!"

"C'mon we gotta help them," says Fionna in a confident voice. Marshall Lee groans, but stops when a pair of piercing eyes met his. "Find water nearby."

Every foot taken closer made the smell of smoke stronger as well as the heat of the flames. Luckily, Fi and Cake had flame shield on and made their way through the fire while Marshall Lee flew over the flames to fulfill Fionna's command. He spots a lake, "Fi! Lake about less than a mile away!"

She jumps off Cake with Flare in her arms, "Cake can you morph into a walking tub to get the water?"

"Sure thing babe! Hup!" the cat stretches herself out of the flames.

Fi puts Flare down, "I'm going to run around and help anyone who's hurt, you stay put, but when Cake comes back you find shelter!"

"All right!" Flare waves her little paw in the air as she watches the determined hero vanish in the flames. She ponders for a while, "These...flames seem so familiar." A shadow rises over her and she gaped, "Flame Queen! What are you doing here?"

"Teaching my son how to start small when taking over a village, what are you doing here?" the Queen of the Fire Kingdom is anything but merciless and is one of the most evil beings to ever accidentally encounter. Flare began to answer, but Flame Queen holds up her hand, "Say it when you return, now I want you to watch over my son and see to it that he takes over this place, understood?"

"Yes, your majesty," Flare instantly answers as Flame Queen seems to mesh within the flames as she took her leave.

"Oh man...don't tell me, the Prince is causing this?" she remembers the plan of Fionna's. "Oh no, I got to get him out of here or else he'll be extinguished...maybe...for good!" in a panic she runs absent-mindedly, pleading to bump into either Fionna or Prince of the Fire Kingdom.

...

"Thank you...so much," weakly coughs the last of the villagers that Fionna carried out. Everyone else behind him cheers for her and she grins gleefully.

"Happy to help!" she puts her fists on her waist, "Who did this to you?"

The villagers point to the the brightest flame burning. Fi couldn't make out the shape, but seeing that the flames were all linked to that one she knew where Cake should aim. Cake hurriedly, but carefully, comes rushing to the village, stops, and waits for Fionna. Marshall Lee floats down, "Cake's here, where you wanna start?"

Fionna jabs her finger where the villagers' pointed at, "There Cake!"

"NO! FIONNA WAIT!"

"Huh?" a howl of pain makes all heads turn to where the flames used to shine. Cake wouldn't stop, the sound of the water pouring down is too strong, because of her heroic instinct, Fionna rushes over to the victim. She can the silhouette of a boy surrounded by smoke, falling, trembling...

"Fionna, wait!" cries Flare and begins to whimper "Oh no...Flame Queen is gonna extinguish me too!"

Now that she is closer she can see his skin seems to be a faded orange and his hair is a grey-ish red as well as his clothes. The red jewel on his forehead gleams faintly under the night sky. (Use Natasha Allegri's artwork of "Flame Prince" as a visual, I love it:3)

Unconciously, her hand began reaching out to his head, but Flare breaks between her and the boy. "Flame Prince! Flame Prince! Please, answer me!"

Only a groan came from his lips, but it was very weak and quiet...Flare starts to get jittery. "Oh...your mother will kill me..."

"Flame...Prince?" Fi quickly stands up, "So...does that mean he started this?" Her heart settled down.

Flare fidgets by pawing the rocks and sighs, "Yes...well, it isn't his fault, I mean, his mother wanted him to."

"He pretty much burnt down the village," mentions Marshall Lee. "Maybe we should just leave him here to die," he ignores meeting eyes with anyone, "He technically caused it, right?"

Fi turns from Marshall Lee to Flare's face. "Is he...evil?"

"...his mom is," she didn't want to make Marshall Lee's reason more optional to do. Fionna turns her head, "B-But! Maybe he isn't!"

"Huh?"

"I mean, he's not purely evil, I promise that! His mother is influencing him to rule after her, to be as evil as her! Oh man, I'd get ice poured all over me for saying this, but please don't leave him like this!" Flare pleads with teary eyes.

Marshall Lee scoffs a bit and Cake has an uneasy look on her face, knowing that boy is part of causing the chaos. "C'mon Fionna, let's just di-"

"Okay...Fionna says and avoids taking a peek at Flame Prince. "Marshall, can you carry him?"

"Are you mad? He's made of fire."

"He's extinguished right now," explains Flare, "It's fine to carry him as is."

Marshall Lee stoops down to put Flame Prince's arm around his shoulder, "Fi, I hope you're not going to start hanging 'round this guy after this is over."

"I hang around you, don't I?"

"BURN!" yells Cake.

...

Cake laid out a good length of foil for Flame Prince to lie on. Fi sat next to him with her knees up to her chin, watching him, waiting for him to wake up. Marshall Lee left right when he completed his deed and Flare had her own piece of foil to lie on. BMO studies the new face in the tree fort and concludes this, "He's handsome."

Fi puts a hand on Flame Prince's head, "He's freezing!"

Flare stands up quickly, "That's bad! He needs a source of heat!" Cake came from the kitchen with a piece of paper being burnt with fire from the stove. "That should revive him a little."

"What do I do?" asks Cake.

"Let him touch the fire."

Cake hands the burning paper to Fi, "...Fine, I'll do it." She leans forward, reminding herself he is a fire element and would't be burnt. As soon as the flame touched his hand the tip of his hair starts to flicker. His color returns, but his flame is still weak. He didn't move, yet his eyes opened to Fi gazing over him.

His flame grew stronger, not because of the fire Fi held, but because of a new kind of warmth flowing through the prince's body. Fire crackled and their gaze didn't break even after he abruptly sits up.

"That tiny flame was able to heal him?" Flare stared in awe.

Fionna and Flame Prince ignored Flare's exclamation and unknowingly, Fi commences slowly to reach for his face. Instantly, Cake grabs her back, "Fi! You wanna get burnt?!"

Flame Prince gasps and viciously glances at Cake, "You! You poured the water on me!"

"Uh oh," mutters Flare.


	3. Chapter 3: Like a Posie

The flame on his head is crackling loudly with his teeth clenched and eyes menacingly staring at Cake. "You tried to kill me!" he accused and lifted his hands to form fireballs, but Flare knocks him down by pouncing on his stomach. One of the fireballs was shot in the air, hitting the ceiling, causing it to come down upon Fi and Cake. Cake quickly shields Fionna from the falling and burning wood.

"Your Majesty, stop!" pleaded Flare while Flame Prince rubs the back of his head from the fall. "These people saved you and-"

"They tried to kill me," he growls and stood up looking at the rubble where Fi crawls out while holding Cake. "Enemies should be punished without mercy," he repeats what his mother has told him and began preparing one fireball in his right hand. He sees Fi flinch while clutching Cake closely with both her arms.

He pauses and for once in his life he hesitates in whether to attack or not. The flames he held in his hand disappears and he shamelessly looks down. Fionna opens her eyes and stares at Flame Prince for a while, knowing he won't attack she slowly stands up. A few minutes of silence passed until Flame Prince utters, "I'm leaving."

"Ah!" Fionna watches him turn into a streak of fire and make his way out from the hole he left in the ceiling. "Wait!" she yells to the night sky and then runs to the window where she can see a pathway of flames burning on the grass. The next decision she made she would have to decide if it is out of desparacy or something more.

She chases after him.

No weapons.

No Cake.

Just her alone with her aching heart taking lead to wherever she is going.

She sprints in the direction of the flames, leading to the forest, there she lost him. No flames made an indication of where he walked leaving Fionna to trust in finding him herself.

...

He was lost, alone with his own thoughts for once. And...they are torturing him. Whether they are his own or not, he can not differentiate between them. His mind is made to think like his mother, how she taught him, what she told him, and most importantly, how to survive.

_"You are a fire element. You are pure destruction, making you purely evil. You are destined to become evil, my son."_

She repeated this statement over and over every single day to him. He never objected to it because he just took it in and never thought about it. He never smiled, he never laughed, he never cried, nor had any friends inside his glass prison. That lamp was his home, and the only place he stayed in.

The only question he asked was, "Why must I stay in here?"

Her response was, "Because you're pure destruction."

So when she told him that they were going outside to take over a village he felt excited for once. Not for causing destruction, but for taking a step into another world where he was kept away for so long. He understood why now, why he is "pure destruction," why he was kept inside the glass lamp for ages...he would be causing chaos to innocent people such as that girl.

He sits on a rock next to a large puddle with posies littering around the pool of water. "I don't know her name," he doesn't understand why this upsets him a little. He attempts to pick up one of the flowers and instead it lights up on fire right when he laid a finger on the petal.

A simple task can not even be done without something being destroyed by him. _What if she is like this flower?_

Frustration enters his mind and in anger he begins to leave as the other posies get lit on fire from the first one. Flame Prince couldn't believe how much he longed to escape his home, because there is no reason to stay in this world if his only ability is to burn it down. In his mind, he is dangerous and should get away.

"Flame Prince!" he had only walked a few meters from the burning posies before he heard his name called. In his view is the girl he left behind, she is panting, sweating and still had a determined look in her eyes. "W-Wait..."

He takes one more step and winces to an ice-cold feeling on his foot. He stepped into snow...meaning...

A cackle is heard and Flame Prince looks up, seeing a woman with long white hair, a large blue dress, light blue skin and a cold, evil stare. When they met eyes she swoons over to him and leans in so close that he can see her sharp teeth being shown off with her smile. She reaches to touch his face and he backs away, but the snow makes him fall back.

"How rare, a new face, and a handsome one," her smile increases and her grin went from ear to ear. Her attention turns toward the mentally and physically exhausted girl, "Fionna!" she growls. "Why are you always taking all the babes to yourself?!"

"Ice Queen, leave him alone or I'll kick your butt like I did so many other times!" Fi reaches for her sword in her bag. Nothing, she forgot to pack.

Ice Queen laughed harder and looks down at Flame Prince who is confused and too shocked from the situation that he didn't move from his place. "I'll take you up at my palace, later," she winks and he shivers, "First I'll take care of this little parasite!"

Ice bolts came flying from the villainess' hands straight down to Fionna who had nothing to do but dodge as much as she can. Seeing that that didn't work Ice Queen flies straight down to Fionna with her hands ready to pin her to the ground. Fi holds hers out and a burst of cold air shakes through the forest. Flame Prince closes his eyes as the air makes him shake, when he opens his eyes he sees Ice Queen above Fionna who is on her knees.

With the last bit of strength she has she tried her best keeping Ice Queen from pinning her down. "Why do all the princes like _you?_ A tomboy! Why don't they like someone like _me?_ Someone more lady-like!" hisses Ice Queen.

"B-Because," she is pushed down a little, but a tiny bit of energy forces her to continue pushing forward. "You try to kidnap them and _force_ them to marry you!" Fionna gasps when she sees ice covering her hands and the chill of it starts traveling bit by bit up her arms. "What are you doing?!"

"Finishing you," smirks Ice Queen. Fionna shuts her eyes when she felt her shoulders turn numb, but a piercing shriek changes her mind. Ice Queen's cold fingers unlocked from hers and she can see the woman trying to put the fire on her hair out. "My beautiful hair!" she continues to shriek.

Fionna collapses on her side seeing that she is frozen from her hands to her shoulders. She shakes from the chill and looks up to see Flame Prince's back and a sword made by his own flames being held in his right hand. After Ice Queen is done rolling in the snow she glares at him and then giggles, "Are we going to get 'hot' up in here now?"

Flame Prince is not amused and points his sword towards her, blasting flames towards her. She continues to cackle madly and throws ice bolts at his flames, making steam between them. Ice Queen stops laughing when the steam clears, showing Flame Prince and Fionna gone. "Urgh! That rotten, stinking-" she stomps on the ground and continues muttering out of her frustration while heading back up to her palace.

[btw, thanks for the reviews(:]


	4. Chapter 4: Spice

The coast is clear from Flame Prince's view and he turns to Fionna. He quickly grabbed her frozen arms and pulled them behind the nearest and thickest bush. He laid over her with his hands at both sides of her head. While he is oblivious to this position Fionna kept her eyes locked on him.

_He's supposedly evil...but...he saved me._

Her pink cheeks darkened to a deep red when Flame Prince looks down on her. His orange cheeks had tints of red and he immediately looks away and knelt by her side. She sits up and faces him, "Uhm...Flame Prince?"

He doesn't want to look at her, seeing a glimpse would make his heart flutter. "...Yeah?"

"That was rad, man!" he turns to Fionna. She lifts her frozen arms to exaggerate her words, "You were like BAM BAM! And Ice Queen was like MY HAIR!" she starts to laugh at the image of Ice Queen stopping, dropping and rolling. "I mean that was AWESOME!"

Flame Prince didn't know what she is doing, but he felt...good. "I-I guess that was," he says shyly. He didn't know what praise is, but...hearing it from her made him smile and a bit of energy rushed through his body, making his fire burn brighter.

Fionna blushes a little and holds out her hands in his fire and she sighs when warmth reaches her body. "Oh man..." she leans closer to melt the ice on her shoulders, "...this feels good." Her vision begins to get blurry and she could barely keep her eyes open. So, she gives in and falls to the ground again, entering the trance of sleep.

This...sends Flame Prince in a panic as he stands there wondering what to do. He can't carry her back to her home and he especially can't leave her here near the Ice Queen's grasp. However, he remembers that puddle where he accidentally burnt down all the posies and strikes an idea.

...

Fionna faintly opens her eyes when she felt the familiar touch of the sun hit her skin as well as wet hands holding on her left shoulder and legs. She gasps when she sees Flame Prince's grey face and his flame flickering weakly. His eyes looked tired as they stared straight ahead. She leaned against his chest and can hear his heart beating faintly and realized how cold he is.

He looks down at her and weakly smiles, "Hey, you're awake." He carefully puts Fionna on the ground and keeps staring straight ahead at the tree fort. He didn't want to glance at her upset, sad face.

"Flame Prince!" he collapses and she stretches her arms out to hold him up.

"Fionna!" she can hear Cake yell.

When footsteps stopped behind her she turned around, "Cake! Quickly get-"

"Fionna!" a shocked recognizable voice and face made her heart jump.

"P-Prince Gumball?"

He realizes who she's with, "Fionna," he says sternly, "Put him down and walk away now, he's dangerous."

Fionna turned around, still holding Flame Prince, with anger jerking at her heart. "I know that!" she yells, "But he saved me from the Ice Queen! He used fire to _help_ me, not _destroy_ me! He drenched himself in water to carry me back! How dare you call him dangerous?!" She gasps, knowing that she said that to Prince Gumball's face.

He is in a daze, but recovers, "Fionna...he's not safe to be around with, please understand that."

"Flame Prince!" Flare rushes over to the drenched prince. Cake heads for Fionna and hugs her legs.

"Gumball..." Fionna lowers Flame Prince down, but holds his head in her arms. Her eyebrows furrow, "I...can't."

...

"Hey hey hey," Marshall Lee enters with his umbrella hovering over his head. "Afternoon, Fi!" no answer, so he flies up her room, "Fi?"

"Lie him down here Cake," he sees Cake moving Flame Prince on a piece of foil. "Marshall?"

"Fi, what you still doing here with this chump?" Marshall floats over Flame Prince and Fionna pushes him away. "Oh, man, you're in cahoots with him!"

"N-No I'm not!" Fionna hides her blushing face.

"By the way, I smelled Gumwad around your living room, was he here?" he sits himself on Fi's bed.

Cake pops up, "Ohh yeah and it was drama~" she sings the last word and Marshall picks her up.

"Tell me baby girl," he lies on his stomach with his hands supporting his head.

"Well..." Cake begins to make a totally exagerrated story to Marshall as Fionna rolls her eyes and leans over the unconcious prince.

Flare lied unconcious as well on her own foil after fainting. Imagining the consequences of Flame Queen was too much for her that she had to pass out. However, she wakes up with a huge thought, "I got it! Let's feed him the spiciest thing ever, eh? Who's a bad cook here?"

Cake and Marshall Lee look at Fi, "W-What?! Me?!"

"Sweetie, I'm sorry...but...my cooking's better," says Cake and Fi pouts. "Anyways why would that help charge him up?"

"Spicy, hot, heat will come rushing through his body," Flare's eyes lit with excitement. "Anything spicy would be good for any fire element like me and him!"

"How about soup?" suggests Marshall, "All Fi has to do is pour a bunch of pepper in it. Easy for you Fi?"

Fionna ignores Marshall and rushes down the ladder to the kitchen. She brought out the biggest pot she could find and a what she thought is a ladle and then rummaged through the fridge for any sort of meat. She stumbles on the meat of a dragon she and Cake slayed a week ago and takes it out on a cutting board.

She begins to stab it with a kitchen knife, "C'mon! C'mon you! Cut!" Her sword is found and she swings it to chop it all up into small pieces and places it all in the pot with water boiling. "Uh..." she looks around and spots BMO, "What else goes in stew?"

"Oh oh! Lots of vegetables, it's good for your body!" says the dancing robot.

Fi makes a face, "Yuck!"

"That is why you are chubby," BMO walks away with his/her head high (BMO doesn't really have a gender).

"I-I'm not chubby!" Fi looks down and frowns, "I-I...PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT BODY TYPES OKAY?!" she rushes to the fridge and chops all the greens she can find with her sword and dumps them in the pot. "Okay...a lot...of pepper and..." she opens her cabinet where a jar of hot peppers is covered in dust and cobwebs. "Fire people like heat right?" she pours everything...even the juice inside and lets the pot boil for ten minutes.

Marshall Lee floats down, "Whoa, you want help with that?" Fionna struggles on carrying the utensil that is half her size up the ladder.

"N-No! I got it!" Cake stretches her arm to grab the mitts and carry the pot up to the room.

"Whoo!" she holds her nose when she lifted the cover, "My, my eyes! My nose!"

Flare takes a deep whiff, "Oh, man, that smells delish! Whoo, baby!" Her tail is wagging when Fi comes back with two glass bowls and pours a spoonful for Flare. She gladly eats it up, lapping the sauce and smacking her lips, "Mmm, stew fit for the Prince!"

Marshall floats up and sits cross-legged in the air next to Flame Prince's head, "You are lucky dude." He then whispers in his ear, "You can act like you're dead now."

Fi ladled the stew in the bowl she held and sat at the other side of his head. She blew on it and Marshall Lee burst in laughter, "What?! Oh...right." She gulps and puts a tiny spoonful in Flame Prince's mouth. His eyes opened instantly and he quickly sits up with his flame slightly burning and the color returning to his body.

"What...is that delicious taste?" his head twists to Fionna and then down to the bowl she held. "M-May I have some more?"

She smiles, "You like my cooking?"

"Yes, it is the tastiest thing that has entered my mouth! Not even the chefs at home could make something like this!"

His comment makes Fi sniffle a little and he flinches wondering if he's done something wrong, but she shakes her head. "It's just...the scent is burning my eyes, but I'm also happy that..." she hands the bowl to him and wipes her eyes. "Finally, someone likes my cooking."

His response is his sloppy slurps of the soup and he sighs in relief. "Ah...sorry, my manners are...not so good."

"Dude," Marshall approaches him, "You're not in the Fire Kingdom now. You are," he avoids putting an arm around him, "away from royalty!" He leans close to his face, "I hope you aren't a priss like Candy Boy. You should be a bad boy, like me, you know, it'll get a ton of chicks."

He clicks his teeth and Fionna slaps him away, "Act as sloppy as you want," she hands over the big pot with contents looking like boiling lava. Flame Prince happily takes it.

"M-May I have some, your Majesty?" asks Flare in a timid voice.

He takes her bowl and scoops up some of the stew, her tail wagged as he puts it down. "Call me Flame Prince," he grins.

Flare digs in as he starts pouring the stew in his mouth. "What is this...meat?"

"Dragon meat!" says Cake. "Fionna and I fought it last week, right Fi?"

"Oh," Fi giggles, "Yeah."

"You fight dragons?" says Flame Prince in amazement.

Marshall floats around him while laying back, "And bears, skeletons, trolls, giants, witches, a bunch of evil stuff."

"You are certainly very strong."

Flame Prince doesn't realize that compliment made Fi as red as a tomato and he stands up, concerned that she is being lit on fire. "Ah, ah," Fi backs a little when Flame Prince stepped closer to her.

"You're face is red, are you...burning inside?"

"You can say that yes," whispers Cake to Marshall and they giggle like little girls at Fi's embarrassed face.

"Well, I, uh..." she faces him and he stood just an inch away from her. She leans in a bit, but in disappointment, he pulls away and sits back down on the foil. "What's wrong?"

"...I really should be getting home," Flare crawls on to his lap and he pets her head. "We should go home, all I do is destroy things. Everything I touch is burned, and...I won't fit in this world. I was made for evil, born from evil, I am evil! Someone like you, people like you, shouldn't care for me."

"But you didn't destroy me, you..." Fionna tries to find her words. "You did good! You saved me from Ice Queen and almost died carrying me home! You're not evil dude."

"'Bout that village you bu-" Marshall groans after getting his stomach hit by Cake.

Flame Prince's face heats up and his flame crackles to and fro. "Fionna," he stands up while holding Flare. "Thank you for everything," he sees an open window and makes a swift jump out of it.

"Flame Prince!" Fionna looks out the window and sees her prince running away like he did last night. "Ugh..." she falls with her back leaning against the wall and pulls her knees to her face. "I'm hopeless..."

Marshall looks out the window with his umbrella and sits on the frame. He sees the flames die down on the grass and the scent of soot blew into his face. The feeling of jealousy already crossed his mind, but left. Even though he keeps flirting with Fionna, keeps tagging along with her, and playfully agitates her she'll never commit to being with him. When she got over Gumball he thought it was his chance, except his plan took another swing to _him._ Why would Fionna like him? Did she ever cry over me? Would she ever...?

He sighs, "Fi, don't cry over him," he floats down to her eye level on the ground. "I bet he won't find his way back, making him easier to chase."

Fionna sniffles, but wipes her nose"No, never mind him." She's angered, "I'll...I'm going to go out and slay some evil, I'm done chasing!" She storms out of the room and waves her sword in the air.

"Fionna!" Cake follows her sister and Marshall Lee gets his umbrella open.

"Ch, girls..." he snorts and flies out the window.

[Not the best Ch written so far...but hopefully its good enough]


	5. Chapter 5: Reunited

Fionna swung her sword angrily in the air as it came crashing down on...apples. She pants a bit as Cake puts another apple on the tree stump in front of her. Another swing and a perfect cut.

"Thank you for cutting my apples for me," says gleeful Old Tree Trunks. He takes the skin-peeled apples from Cake and put them in his pie pan, "I can hardly hold a knife with my trunk anymore..." He begins to walk back to his house to cover his pastry.

Cake starts on peeling the other apples while humming a tune to herself. Fionna slices another apple apart, "So, why you happy Cake?"

"Oh, you know, Lord Monochrome?" she giggles at saying his name and Fi tries to crack a tiny smile. "He told me how beautiful I looked in the night sky and, oh, oh, oh, and when he wrapped his body around me," she squeezes herself tightly. "And to end the night he gave me a bag of catnip," she sighs and gracefully falls on the ground. "It was beautiful Fi..."

Fionna lightly chuckles, "I guess it would be..." She lightens herself up by thinking to herself that at least her sister is having a good time with her boyfriend. "Is that why you stayed up all night?"

"AND STILL AM!" the catnip bag had mysteriously appeared in Cake's paw and starts hitting it lightly against her cheek. "Hey, you going to that ball tonight at the Candy Kingdom?"

"Uh...no," Fi says bluntly, "Why am I hearing this for the first time?"

"Sweetie, you've been stuck in the house since..." Cake pauses, "Since BMO called you fat, remember?"

"CHUBBY!" corrects Fionna and throws her sword back in her bag. "Hey, Ms. Pig," she greets Old Tree Trunks' girlfriend as she came walking by with her bow bouncing on the side of her head.

"Hey girls," she waves a hoof and goes in Tree Trunks' house.

"Well...guess we're not getting apple pie," says Fionna while looking at Cake.

Cake has a sly smile on her face, "Party?" She playfully hits Fi's shoulder, "C'mon, you loved Gumball's parties! Let's get over the awkwardness and party 'til tomorrow morning!" She shakes her arms in the air.

"Mmm...Okay."

"Did I hear the word 'party?' 'Cause I am the definition of it!" said a garbled yet clear voice. The purple, stuck up cloud floats down out of no where and poses, "Hey guys!"

"Lumpy Space Prince?" says slightly alarmed Fionna. "What are you doing here?"

"Just scavenging for nuts and vegetables, you know, to raise these pecs," LSP tries to flex his arms, but fails and starts panting. Fionna and Cake start wondering why he even approached them in the first place just like every other times. "Phew...well, anyways, you guys better come, especially you Fionna. Gumball is expecting you," LSP strokes his moustache a little and dramatically disappears out of sight over the hill. "Ooh, you look tasty to eat..." the girls hear him make an effort to throw a stick or stone at something. "OH GLOB, OH GLOB, NEVER MIND I CHANGE MY MIND!" a roar is heard and they see him floating back towards them.

"LSP what happened?!" exclaims Fi as he runs right behind her and Cake.

"I'm sorry! I thought I could take it down!"

Old Tree Trunks' voice came from behind Fi, "I have apple pie."

"PIE!" cheers Cake and LSP, but the catnipped kitten is kept behind to prepare for the worst. "Aw man..."

"Pie later Cake," she draws out her sword, "Come out you monster!"

In her surprise, a huge flame lion, twenty times bigger than Flare, rise from over the hill. Fi gapes and Cake stares with huge eyes. The only thing containing water around them is Old Tree Trunks' water pail and nothing more. "Kick its butt girls!" yells LSP through the window.

"What did you do you fool?!" growls Cake.

"I-It had these jalapeno or something, and I was so hungry that I threw a rock at it, I mean, I showed off my pecs at it and then it got angry," he stuffs his face with apple pie.

"That's _my_ apple pie," she mutters and grabs the pail just in case. "Got a plan Fionna?"

"Uhmm, wait, maybe it can talk!" carefully, the brave tomboy takes a few steps forward to the fire animal. "Uhm, hey, I'm sorry my stupid friend did that, so can you please forgive hi-" Before she can finish her apology the flame lion lets out a steamy, loud and hot roar that shook Fionna and back off for cool air. "Oh man..." she rubs her eyes and blinks for a while noticing tiny flames rising on the grass.

Cake gasps, "FIRE!" she pours the pail over where the flames were and yelps of pain are heard. The large flame lion hurries to where the cries are and Fi follows finding out those flames belong to flame lion cubs'.

"Oh no..." one out of three took in most of the water and laid on the ground making her remember when she first met...Flame Prince. Helpless, grey and lifeless. She bends down to pick it up, but the mother towers over her with a terribly upset face. Fi expects her to fiercely rip her apart limb from limb, but instead the cub is scooped up in its mother's mouth and carried to their cave. Fi follows.

The cave is narrow for the flame lion as she bends down to push herself through the walls. Fionna had to avoid touching the walls for she can feel heat emitting from them and the each step closer got hotter. She wipes her sweat and sees the three flaming heads of the active cubs pushing each other around and flickering in the dark. The heat is becoming unbearable for her, she already felt like fainting, but it is either curiosity, the guilt of being responsible for the hurt cub, or a feeling pulling her to follow. However, she stops, puts her hands on her knees, and closes her eyes panting. Her throat is dry.

She can no longer hear the steps of the flame lion cubs' or the mothers' nor feel their presence in front of her. Instead she heard footsteps approaching her, stopping, and then continuing, inching closer and closer towards her. Immediately, she points her sword blindly to whoever is coming with one arm still on her knee and head facing the ground. "Who...is there?" she asks dryly.

"Fionna?"

She didn't want to look up, she already recognized the voice and the feet a few inches away from hers. "F-Flame Prince, wh-what are you doing here?"

"I should say that to you," he says sternly, but then his tone becomes concerned, "I'm glad you stopped where you are-"

Fionna didn't sense the concern and with a little anger she responds, "So I wouldn't find you? So I wouldn't bother you anymore? After...taking care of...you?"

She faces him and he had confusement written on his face. He shakes his head, "No, if you continued on you would have burnt to death in the lair of flame lions and lionesses." She sees him holding the cub that was drenched before, "This guy got himself drenched in water, but he's okay now."

Still panting, Fi watches him set the healthy cub down and hop happily back to its family, "So, you didn't go back home?"

"No, now that I spent some time thinking I realized my 'home' is a prison," Flame Prince gestures Fi to walk forward and she does as he went to her side. "I was kept away, told what to believe in and who I am, how can I go home when I disagree with everything she taught me?"

"She?"

"My mother."

Silence fell on this topic and Fi couldn't stop staring at that blank face of his which stared straight ahead. For a second he seemed confused and worried, but then he became untraceable again. When the entrance of the cave is able to be seen Fionna begins to walk slower, so did he.

Flame Prince side glances at her, discovering that she has been looking at him for a while. In embarrassment she flicks her head forward and twirls a piece of her hair that has been hanging in front of her eye. They reached outside where Cake and LSP waited, "Flame Prince?!" exclaims Cake.

"Ah, yeah, we bumped into each other," says Fi while pushing her hair to the side.

LSP floats around Flame Prince, "This you new boyfriend, Fi? Is he going to be at the party tonight?"

"Par...ty?" Flame Prince repeats the word that has never trailed off his lips before.

"Oh my Glob, don't tell me you don't know what a party is?" says a really shocked LSP.

Flame Prince stood there with his cheeks turning slightly red from his lack of knowledge of things like these. "Uhm...I guess not."

LSP had his mouth open, "Man, you never danced with any ladies? Like, held their hands and dance around the room"

"Fionna's the only lady I've made contact with," he says bluntly and Fi turns red again.

The cloud groans, "Man with your hotness I bet you can get actual 'ladies'!"

"Don't listen to him," Fi pushes him away, "He'll just mess up your mind."

"What does he mean by 'actual ladies'?" asks Flame Prince, now curious. "Are you not one?"

"NO NO I AM!"

A low laugh is heard and a shadow sweeps over the flustered girl and confused boy, "With that figure she is."

"Marshall Lee!" cheers LSP as the vampire steps down on the grass with his umbrella next to Flame Prince.

"Cake, you've been awfully quiet," whisper Fionna, ignoring Marshall's presence.

"I gots me pie," smiles Cake while sneaking more bites behind LSP.

"Save me some," Fi turns back to Marshall, "What are you doing here?"

"Joining the fun," he smirks at Flame Prince. "I think I want to spend time with him."

"What?! No!" Fi refuses. Who knows what things Marshall Lee will blurt out to Flame Prince. Especially, things about her. Stupid and embarrassing things.

Marshall chuckles, "Don't worry Fi, I'm just going to show him how to have a good time. He and I will crash the party tonight as uninvited guests."

Flame Prince glances over at Fionna and she nervously smiles at him, "Fionna...is this what you call someone having feelings for you?"

"Ah, you mean..." she begins to flush a little.

"Yes...does Marshall Lee have feelings for me?" Marshall backs off nearly knocking his umbrella over, Cake and Fi shared uncontrollable laughter with each other, LSP wasn't listening, and Flame Prince did not get what is funny. "I don't feel the same way Marshall."

"First rejection I am able to swallow down," he takes an apple out and sucks the red out of it. "No dude, we're both royalty, the only difference is that I know how to have fun." He leans close to his ear, "And how to sweep the ladies."

Flame Prince twists his head to Fionna, "Are...parties fun?"

"Ye-"

"Yeah man!" Marshall Lee butts in and Fi puffs her cheeks. "They are the bomb, when I'm there of course."

"Are you going to be there Fionna?"

"I-If you're there," shyly she smiles and Marshall rolls his eyes.

"Then I'll see you there."

[Wrote most of this in school. pardon everything]


	6. Chapter 6: Advice with a Twist

"All right, follow me," Marshall Lee floats into the forest where the trees are able to shade the sunlight from his face. Flame Prince's feet crunch on dry leaves as he tried his best trying to catch up with the vampire king. Low notes are strummed into the silence and into Flame Prince's ears and out as Marshall harmonizes a little.

"You play music?" asks Flame Prince trying to compare Marshall's bass guitar axe with the flaming uke his annoying joker played. "It actually sounds...nice."

"Ladies dig music man," Marshall comes face to face with him, "You play something?"

"...No."

Marshall leans back in the air and strums his bass again, "Why do you like Fionna? What does she even see in you?"

"...Like?" Flame Prince puts a hand on his chin. "Like...I like Fionna?"

"Do you?"

"Do I?" dumbfounded he asks, "Marshall, what is even 'like?'"

Now Marshall just wanted to throw his guitar at him, but he just floats there with an annoyed face. He softly plays a tune while remembering his ex-girlfriend Ashley. "When someone says 'I like you' it can go two ways. They like you as a friend or they like you as something more," he remembers when they moved in together. "You want to get closer to them, want to be with them every day," he strums a chord. "Like can also be doing stupid stuff for that...err...special someone."

"Then...I do like Fionna," that statement makes Marshall stop in midair.

"Then you have to absolutely be sure dude!" Marshall is an inch away from Flame Prince's face. "You _have_ to be sure!" that memory of him dumping Ashley passed through his mind following with Fionna's crying face. "I would consider you the most evil of people I know if you break someone's heart, especially hers."

Marshall's face is so serious that Flame Prince couldn't bring his eyes to wander off. "I-I don't really know," he glances off, and then returns eye contact, "But," he says abruptly. "I want to make her happy, make her smile, and when I ran away that time I wanted to turn around..."

"Why didn't you?"

"I got lost...but meeting her so coincidentally today made me...happy," he trails off for a second. "I never felt happy...until I met her and the definition of like that you gave me...when I think about it, it makes sense!" Flame Prince grins, "I like Fionna."

_How can you say that without a flustered face?_ wonders Marshall. He isn't very convinced and gets ready to leave when he hears a gasp. He turns around seeing Flame Prince's cheeks shine brightly red, "What?"

"What is this burning feeling rising from my heart to my face?" Flame Prince feels his own head.

"Oh my Glob..." this guy is too innocent for Marshall Lee to take seriously. "It's called blushing! It's when someone's face turns red and warm!"

"When I think of Fionna I blush..."

"That's...nice man...that's nice," he has no idea what to say, but at least he isn't doubting him anymore. "Do you at least know how to dance?"

"...No."

"Then that's what I'll teach you today, c'mon, you need foil gloves or something," he opens his umbrella and swings his guitar on his back.

"Marshall Lee, why are you helping me?" asks Flame Prince when a crack of sunlight hits his face while stepping out of the forest.

"Because you got a chance I never had or would have achieved."

...

Fi sits outside on the branch of the huge tree contemplating, and looking at her reflection on her sharp pink sword. She frowns, smiles as wide as she can before her cheeks hurt, stuck her tongue out, puffed her cheeks and furrowed her eyebrows. Cake sneaks in the view and they both start inventing the weirdest faces they can form, laugh, sigh, and then lay down on the branch. "...Fi?"

"Yeah?"

"You wanna wear a dress?"

"Ha! No," Fionna rolls on her side to face Cake, "Last time I ripped it, remember? Plus, I hate dresses...they gunk up my fighting skills."

Cake pretends not to hear the last part, grabs her knapsack and jumps off the tree, "I'm going to stop by the market for a while!"

"Huh? Why?"

"It's a surprise!" Cake stretches her legs out to make the journey shorter. "Now...would Fi look good in red or orange?" She starts heading over north, swinging back and forth while keeping an eye out for any critters that her feet will stumble upon. She turns around, waves back at Fionna who is now a speck on the tree branch, shrinks down to normal size and strolls into the bustling market.

Sellers try to yell over each other in order to out-advertise their opponents and make more money. Buyers are struggling to obtain whatever they can grab their hands on or attempt making trades with things they have on them to escape the high prices. Cake passes through them, looking left to right until she hears familiar laughter. She gasps and sees Marshall Lee wrapping Flame Prince with way too much foil. He is having too much fun wrapping Flame Prince like a mummy that he doesn't notice Cake approaching them.

"Marshall!" he stops and looks down, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, hey Cake, what you think?" he steps back showing Flame Prince wobbling, Marshall continues laughing. "Whoo...okay, I had my laugh," the foil rips in half from Flame Prince's strength and women at the market stop to look. Especially the young teen ones.

"Are you trying to kill him already?!" yells Cake. Suddenly, the crowd of customers and sellers begin running their way rudely knocking Cake down. She grabs the leg of Choose Goose (same name different gender), a top seller, and pulls her, "What is going on?"

"The pyromancers are oh so bored, and were sent by their high and mighty Lord," she flinched at the crackle of flames. "They wish to make us toil in fear in order to quench their boredom, oh dear!" Choose Goose escapes Cake's grip at the sight of Flame Prince. "He's one of them! A pyromancer!"

"You know what's happening?!" Cake fiercely asks. The flames grew bigger.

"Ssssorry," a hiss voice came behind the flames on the left side of Flame Prince. "We heard that our cousin was passssing."

Another voice comes from his right side, yet the speech is clearer and the accent foreign, "Yes, this would be perfect for getting back at Flame Queen, especially when she cheated her way to becoming ruler!" The voice shouted in disgust and the owner of it jumps out of the flames and tackles Flame Prince to the ground. He couldn't lift himself, the person wore heavy red armor with a red triangular jewel glistening from the fire. Through the helmet he can see flames licking maliciously through the cracks.

"Fla-" Marshall gets cut off when a ball of fire throws him out of the scene. Cake runs to check on him, but a hot metal boot kicks her through the fire and on top of the unconscious vampire.

"Who are you?!" demands Flame Prince as he forms his sword in his right hand and slashes the helmet in half revealing an unknown, yet somewhat familiar burning face. His eyebrows furrow and he growls, "Titaia." [Greek for "fire"; "to burn"] He clenches his fist and focuses his power in one punch that sends his cousin flying, but she is able to land without a problem. He hears the other charging from behind him, "Fina," he whispers and throws a fiery uppercut. ["Fina" is the feminine form of "Fino" meaning "serpant" or "burning one"]

She took in more of his punch for her helmet is off and hits the ground with a big thud. However, she strains to get up, wipe her mouth and smirk, "Not bad, coussssin."

"It looks like Aunt taught you well," they begin to circle him like vultures. "I bet you will mercilessly kill whoever threatens to be more powerful than you like she did."

Fina sticks her forked tongue out, "She killed our mother, that throne isssss not her rightful place, not even yoursssss!"

Flame Prince does not speak, he keeps his eyes on the enemy.

It's Titaia's turn to try and break him, "If you were born by her, raised by her, you must be equally evil as he-" A sharp pink sword tears at her armor and sinks an inch or two into the metal, giving a chance for Fionna to toss her aside.

"He is not evil!" she yells and keeps her sword clasped in both hands.

The sound of her voice wakes Cake, "Fi?" She can see through the streaks of fire Fionna covering Flame Prince, but her sister is oblivious what is happening at the back of them. "FIONNA!"

"Sssstupid girl," jeers Fina had begun building a huge fireball. "The oxygen isss very helpful out here," before throwing it she yells, "People associated with him shall burn!"

_You are born evil, the people here are evil, I am evil, but that is no reason to be sad about it. You are powerful, strong, use it to defeat your enemies! Triumph over them and kill anyone who threatens you!_

Another one of his mother's lectures flew past his memory when he rushed in front of Fionna, stuck out his hand and absorbs the enormous impact filled with rage. He can feel it, the anger, the agony, the pain of his cousins losing their mother. He can feel how much distress they felt through her death and their hatred for him and his mother. These feelings, so new to him, overwhelmed him that his hand began to shake. The fireball shrinks as he forces himself to take the flames in, all the emotions, making his heart beat faster.

"Impossssible," says Fina in awe.

"No..." Titaia puts her helmet on, "It's not, he definitely is strong."

Flame Prince finally closes his hand, gasping, eyebrows drawn and his face covered with anguish and confusion. However, his eyes burns in theirs, they had a devastating appearance, filled with strength and guilt. In a raspy and harsh voice he growls, "Go."

The two follow this simple order and their retreat causes the flames to die down. Marshall is seen laying on the ground, luckily under shade, and is surrounded by the customers and sellers who ran away from the once scorching location. The noise of their cheering woke him up. They applauded Fionna and Flame Prince, mostly him, and Cake runs to Fi holding her, sobbing. "Glob Fi don't do that again!" she cries on her shoulder and looks over at Flame Prince, "Oh, I'd hug you right now but I can't! Thank you!"

Wearily, he smiles, "You're we-"

A group of women of all ages flock around him honoring him, swooning and sighing. Fionna stares in disbelief as Marshall Lee cracks his neck and sees what she is fuming about. He decides to take advantage over the situation, "He was known as evil by Choose Goose, but now she's acting all giddy to him."

They can hear her girly giggles somewhere in the crowd, "I judged you wrong, you are not evil, you sent those pyromancers running like weevils. Please accept my apology, by accepting this, for I think aluminum gloves will come in handy."

She winks and Flame Prince carefully picks them up, slipping them on his hands, amazed they were not melting. He runs past the girls, straight to Fionna and holds her shoulders, "You aren't burning."

Fi smiles, "Yeah...I'm not," she takes both his hands and holds them. "Flame Prince...are you okay? It looked like it hurt..."

He looks down at their hands touching and then up to her concerned face. "Fionna, I'm fine as long as you are," she smiles.

The setting is cute to Cake, but Marshall gags a bit and heads over to Choose Goose, "You got aluminum boots or something?"


	7. Chapter 7: Taming the Flame

Cake had a petite pink bow tied around her neck and she kept turning the bow around her neck. "Should it be in the front...back...or side?" she muttered to herself and the mirror. BMO is about to suggest something but they both gasp and turn when they catch a swish of red on the side of the mirror.

Fionna wore a beautiful, long, flowy red dress that glinted under the light and defined her curvy waist. The ends of it dragged on the floor gracefully and the only thing keeping the dress up are straps which drooped on her shoulders. However, they shown off her long and delicate arms. She is a sight to see.

"Oh...baby," Cake sniffles, "You so pretty." She and BMO close in on Fi and hug her legs.

"Aw, thanks guys," she looks at herself in the mirror, and tries to admire her figure by placing her hands on her waist. She blushes and rubs the back of her head nervously, "I-I love it Cake."

"Great!" Cake squeezes her legs again then lets go. "Now, let's go party!"

...

Soft pop music blasted from the castle so loudly it made the ground vibrate a bit outside it. Marshall Lee is ready to crash the party with his bass through the doors, but Flame Prince stood at the front of the bridge. "What's wrong man?"

Flame Prince has been thinking of the incident that occurred not too long ago. His cousins, those tormenting emotions and who he is. Good or evil? What he has done proves him to be straying away from becoming like his mother, but...it's not enough to convince him. He doesn't realize Marshall Lee saying "Dude" repeatedly until he yells it in his ear. "What?!" he turns and gapes the same as the vampire. "Fi-Fionna..."

She has just gotten off of Cake, and had her hat pulled off, revealing her long, golden, luscious hair. She begins to stroke it shyly when she sees Flame Prince approaching, Cake lightly pushes her forward. Marshall Lee floated along side of his lovestruck buddy. Fi couldn't stop blushing, can't look at Flame Prince's face, so she stares at the ground until she sees the shine of his aluminum boots. Slowly, with every inch of her heart beating fast, she gazes upon him.

He has a calm face with his mouth open a little, but the flames on his head crackled loudly. His hand is reached out towards her cheek and she can feel a bit of warmth on the aluminum gloves as he brushes her bangs out of the way. Fionna can't take it, the cold intensity of the night air didn't bother her anymore, and even though music floated in the night air it seemed to be silent between the two. She closes her eyes and leans forward, taking Flame Prince by surprise.

He forgets he's made of fire for one second and is an inch away from her lips. Half an inch. A centimeter. Stop. He remembers.

Flame Prince takes a hold of Fionna's disappointed face with both hands and attempts to place a very light kiss on her forehead. She can feel his lips slightly rub against her skin and the heat tickled her, she giggles. "You're stunning Fionna."

"Thanks."

"C'mon, let's party!" yells Cake as she runs to burst through the doors.

Marshall Lee checks his tuning, looks back at the couple, and smirks, "Gumball, you are so gonna get it."

...

The party is a sight to see, everyone from the Candy Kingdom came to dance, eat and have fun with each other. Prince Gumball worked hard baking the goods, making the punch, setting up the decorations and making sure he had security measures in case of unwanted arrival from the Ice Queen. LSP is shaking his booty and beatboxing to the song next to the stereos with Ice Cream Guy and the marshmallows are splashing themselves in the chocolate fountain. Old Tree Trunks tries to catch up with the tune of the music as Ms. Pig is dancing happily next to him. Everything seemed perfect.

Prince Gumball's eye twitches when he hears, "Oh my Glob it really is a party! Marshall Lee is here!"

He smacks his head when he hears a, "Hey there Gumwad," right next to his ear. He didn't need nor wanted to turn around, but he did.

"Marshall Lee, this party is for invited guests only," says Gumball while Marshall sucks the red out of a bunch of cherries. He is about to yell at him when spots Fionna and notices how gorgeous she looked without her hat and regular clothes. However, when Marshall moved out of his view he realizes Flame Prince is the one accompanying her tonight. "W-What? Flame Prince?"

The mischeif sparked in the vampire's eyes and he looks over at Fi and Flame Prince, and then to Gumball's confused face. He smiles, he hasn't played his guitar yet, he is bored, why not mess around a bit? Especially with Gumball. He leans back leisurely, "Oh yeah, those two are really hitting it off it seems."

"Are they...dating?" he watches Fionna feed Flame Prince a creampuff. Weren't those her favorites before he wondered.

With a dirty smirk Marshall answers, "Oh yeah. They had dates, held hands, maybe tried kissing...so I think they are officially a couple." He hopes this will upset PG mentally in some way or another.

"This...can't be," PG thinks to himself. "I already warned Fionna about that guy...and yet..."

Marshall already traveled to the other side of the room to Fi's ear, "Hey, you know Gumwad? I think he's jealous."

"Huh?" he points to where Gumball is pondering to himself, he looks up at Fi and then turns around. "Oh..." she twists her head another way. "I-I don't care," she grabs a cookie and begins munching on it. "Marshall you can just tell hi-"

"Fionna."

"Eeeep!" Gumball stood right in front of her and she only just sees that Marshall had dragged Flame Prince to the other side of the room. He pulled Flame Prince away to talk to some candy people, and to introduce him to new faces. She glares at the bad boy.

Gumball begins to talk, "Fionna," he says in a soft voice, "I hope you know what you are doing."

"What do you mean?" her eyebrows furrow a little.

"With that guy," he motions his head to Flame Prince. "Remember what I told you? He's dangerous, and-"

"Gumball...stop," Fi shuts her eyes for a second and then faces him, "You broke my heart, okay? So why do you want me to start liking you again? Glob, only when you see me with another guy you like me and then try and break us apart? Gumball, I like him, I know him, he's not evil and he may be dangerous, but...he isn't to me." She begins to tear a little, but she bites her lip.

"Fionna, that's not what I-" PG reaches to hold her, but he feels tension and heat on his right side. Sure enough, there stood Flame Prince with a straight mouth and concerned face. "Ah..."

Fun is over for Marshall as he swoops between the two, "What you do this time Gumball?"

"What did I do...? What did _you_ do?" he begins to bicker at him while Flame Prince takes Fionna's hand and pulls her across the dance floor, past the crowd, and through the nearest doors leading outside on a balcony.

"Face it Gumwad, you are jealous," accuses Marshall Lee while folding his arms.

PG stares at him furiously, "Do you not know a thing about this guy?"

"A bit."

"What is he made of?"

"Fire, duh."

"Exactly! Becoming good is something that is possible, but who knows, it can make him unstable! Especially, romance!" he exaggerates his words by swinging his arms up and down. "So unstable that he can set the whole world on fire!"

"Wait...so," Marshall starts taking in the situation seriously.

"One kiss can send everyone to doom!" he tries to keep his voice as quiet as he can for the party goers to not here. "Tell that to Fionna, now!"

...

Fionna pulls her hat back on and tucks her long hair inside while Flame Prince leans on the edge, looking forward. "Fionna, who is he?"

She puts her back against the rail, trying to find her words, "A friend, a really close friend."

Bluntly, he asks, "How close?"

"N-Not very, we just hung out together a lot," she awkwardly pulls on a strand of hair.

"Do you like him?"

"H-Huh?" Fi begins to stutter, "No! I-I mean, yeah, but...wait, n-no I don't!"

"Do...you like me?"

"Huh?! Yeah!" her face became really red.

_"When someone says 'I like you' it can go two ways. They like you as a friend or they like you as something more." _

"Which...is it?" he begins to get closer to her face.

"Ah..." she starts to lean in as well, "Like..._like_ like."

Why is he doing this? He is aware that he is made of fire, that this kiss will hurt her. She is also conscious of this, she doesn't care. He wants this, he wants her and doesn't want anyone like Gumball to steal her away. Even though he knows nothing about PG just knowing Fi and him are close friends makes him feel jealousy. It's unbearable, makes him greedy for her, this is why he selfishly wants to kiss her. Make her his.

Fionna wants to know what attracts her to him. She has thought of this over and over, wondering why does she chase him? Want him? Maybe love him? She knows it isn't desperate act to forget about Gumball, maybe it's love at first sight. She remembers when they first met, he was unconscious, but her heart skipped a beat when she first fell eyes on him. Did he have the same feeling when he awoken? Is that why they have this inseparable bond between them? That must be it she thought.

"Fi!" the two turn their heads to see Marshall Lee and Gumball at the doorway. "Stop!" he floats at the angered couple and does the fakest smile to Flame Prince. The prince's arms are crossed and his flames crackled loudly to purposely intimidate Marshall and PG.

Fionna sighs, "What is it Marshall?" She ignores Gumball's presence.

"Well, Gumball said this gunk about why you two shouldn't see each other!" he words it wrong and is smacked out of the way.

Bravely, Gumball stands in front of Flame Prince. Although he is four years older Flame Prince stood at the same height as him except his fiery hair made him look taller. With a deep breath PG says, "You might become unstable with the romance you are experiencing with Fionna."

"...Unstable?"

"The romance may be too much for you to handle that you might strike a sudden reaction to volcanoes making them erupt, causing earthquakes and kinds of chaos! The world would crumble as we know it!" Flame Prince looks down shamefully and Fi reaches for his hand, PG makes a point that he will regret, "Why do you think I had your mother lock you up in that glass lamp?"

Flame Prince's eyes widen and rage immediately fills his whole entire body. Flames are pouring from his eyes which have turned red with anguish and he grits his teeth. "You..." he hisses and starts stepping forward as Gumball does the opposite. Fionna grabs his hand, stopping him from entering the castle and he fiercely turns around.

She can't say anything, her face said it all. She is fearful of what will happen next.

He stops in his tracks, looks up to Gumball and talks in the lowest, harshest voice he can make, "I will never forgive you, in fact I envy you for being able to live your own life, being able to meet Fionna first, and taking my own away. I would kill you on the spot...but," he backs away, "In order to prove I am suitable for Fionna I will not commit something my mother would do."

Gumball relaxes, turns nervously from Flame Prince to Fionna, "...Be safe." He heads back inside with guilt settling in his head. Did he make the right decision keeping Flame Prince away from the outside world? Was he being too cautious?

"Hey ya'll! Why you guys so glum?" asks Cake who is having a ride on Lord Monochrome's back. "Oh, is it Gumball related?" she whispers.

Fi flashes an uneasy smile, "Yeah...you can say that. Hey Lord Monochrome! How you doing?"

The silent black horse taps his hoof on the edge of the balcony and it she guesses it to be a really long response for the tapping is almost never ending. Cake smiles, "He said he's having fun. Why don't you guys go back inside? They slow dancing."

Marshall smacks his head and speaks after a long while, "Oh man! I'm supposed to be playing now," he checks his tuning then looks at Flame Prince and Fionna. "You guys coming in?"

Fi and Flame Prince glance at each other and he rubs the back of his head. "You wanna-" they started at the same time. Fi clears her throat and he stretches out his hands to take both of hers...


	8. Chapter 8: Unobtainable Desires

Fionna and Flame Prince were able to clear the awkward air by being unable to slow dance correctly causing them to laugh. Fionna snorted making Flame Prince laugh harder until he coughed, finally they sigh, being glad they got over the uneasy silence. The song has ended. So has the night. They didn't realize they have been literally dancing the night away. However, during their slow dances Flame Prince couldn't help but sneak nasty glares at Gumball whenever he spotted him. Still, he had fun with Fionna. He tries making that the one thing that matters tonight.

She cracks a tiny smile, and his response is a sweep of red across his face. Fi giggles while pointing and he covers his blushing face, "You're cute."

No effect on him, so he honestly answers, "No, you're cute."

The comment is super effective as Fionna's entire face became red as a rose. He begins laughing and pointing and she puffs her cheeks up with embarrassment. "Y-You! I-I'm not!" she yells, yet a little timidness flowed within her voice. She grabs his stuck out hand and showed her tongue.

A sudden crash is heard inside the castle and a rush of chilly air blew into hers and Flame Prince's faces. They didn't need to wonder who made her way in. Ice Queen is aleady cackling and dancing until she realizes no one is inside. "Aw, what? I missed the party?!" she held Gunter under one arm.

"Wenk."

"Gunter, do you stink again?" she holds the penguin up in the air and sniffs him as Fionna rushes over with her sword. "Ah...it's you."

"That's right! What are you doing here Ice Queen?" While she kept her eyes on her enemy she didn't realize Prince Gumball right behind the Ice Queen putting away the leftovers. He stood frozen.

Ice Queen puts her hand up, "Ah ah ah, I just came to party..." Fi lowers her sword a little, "PSYCH!" she knocks the sword out of her hand and freezes her feet to the floor. A small "Eep" came from behind her, she looks back, notices PG and smiles. "Hello Prince Gumball," she says seductively.

"I-Ice Queen."

"Gumball!" Fi begins trying to chip away the ice with her sword. Flame Prince quickly approaches her, but she insists, "Go help Gumball!"

He can see the helpless prince being scooped up by Ice Queen and takes off his gloves. He doesn't hesitate to aim a fireball right near her head...and his. She gasps and turns around, "You!" Her frown softens, "I learned more about you today, when I was listening on the roof."

Flame Prince flinches, but keeps heading towards her, each step closer made her easier to burn, but...she had Gumball. He can only listen to whatever words she is throwing at him, "I bet you were lonely in that glass lamp. Finally, someone who knows how it's like to be alone..." She can't entirely remember who has left her, but she knows and feels someone has abandoned her once. Flame Prince slips on his gloves, "To feel...trapped," she begins to ponder on these feelings she has locked away. "Feel...sad," she pauses, not noticing that Flame Prince is just a foot away from her.

He snatches Gumball from her arms and couldn't help to add a little sympathy to his voice, "Yes, we have felt the same." She is looking down on him, "But...you are not the person I seek comfort to when I feel them. And he isn't for you."

She looks at him with her white eyes, unable to respond she grabs Gunter, "Guess we have to leave early," she mutters and takes off without a fight.

Flame Prince watches her leave, "Uhm...Flame Prince?" He looks down, noticing he is holding Gumball up like a child. "You can put me down now," he does. "Fionna are you okay?"

Fi managed to only get one leg out and is already tired, "Y-Yeah...super!" Flame Prince takes care of the rest, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah...thanks to Flame Prince," he smiles a bit uneasily and then converts it into a large grin. "I guess I was wrong about you, I'm sorry," he holds out his hand, "For everything...really."

Flame Prince looks at his hand and at first, acts reluctant, finally, he grips it tightly. He cannot forgive this person, not look him straight into the eye and had his reasons to hate him, but he didn't. The feeling of hate for someone has never crossed his mind or body yet and Gumball did not seem to be the guy to waste harsh feelings on. He let's go of the hand. He feels foolish.

...

"Hey, you've been quiet for most of the night," said Fi halfway through the walk back to the tree fort. Cake accidentally left before her, "What's up?" She needed no jacket or light since Flame Prince made use for both sources for now.

"I've been thinking..." he searches for his words, "About...now that I know who and why Gumball locked me up...I know I'm supposed to be mad, but...I'm not. I mean a little, but...I guess...I don't dislike him."

"That's good..." she doesn't know what to say.

"And then there's the Ice Queen, she had the same look of loneliness in her eyes," he stares at the night sky. "...I-I don't know, right now, everything is overwhelming...confusing me," he grips his fist, but loosens when he feels a hand intertwine with his fingers. He looks tenderly at her, "And the saddest part of the night..."

He looks down at her and she looks up with curious eyes, "What?'

"...I can't kiss you," they stopped in front of her home. "We're here."

"Y-Yeah..." she wants to hug him, lay her head on his chest and squeeze him. "M-Maybe he was exaggerating," she wants an excuse to kiss him or at least embrace him.

"Fionna..." he leans down, "I wish he was." Warmth trickled down her nose as he lovingly kisses it, it tickles, "This is the best I can do." He kisses her cheek, "Until I learn that flame shield spell." He pecks her forehead, his favorite place on her head to kiss, "Then we can hug and do..." he wonders what to do. "What do we do?"

Fionna's broad mind made her think a little too far in the question and her face immediately turns beet red. "Uhm, uhm," she pinches herself. "You know...uhm...yeah, j-just hug!" she refuses to think any further.

He smiles, "Okay, good night." He is ready to turn away, but Fi grabs his hand, pulls him down and does a really quick kiss on his cheek. It stung a little and made her tear, but she claims in her mind that it was worth it. "F-Fi-" he's blushing, but is a little more worried of her lips.

"It's fine! Good night Flame Prince!" she runs in the house holding her lips. "Haa..." she relaxes after shutting the door, "Worth it."

"Hey Fi!" calls out a catnipped Cake. She is dancing with BMO to a weird, repetitive, yet catchy pop song. She adds words to it, "Take these tomatoes and put 'em in a salsa," she starts shaking her butt. "And you swish 'em around..." her voice fades away when Fionna crawls up into her room. Immediately, she strips off the red dress, changes into her pajamas and crawls into her sleeping bag.

"SALSA!" she hears BMO yell.

All she can remember are his warm kisses and the love she felt in each of them. Although Cake and BMO continued partying downstairs the faint memory of him made her fall into a deep sleep.

[Sorry guys I know this is really really short, but I'll try making it up in the next chapter, just didn't want to keep you waiting. Gotta continue finishing homework THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT AND ADVICE]


	9. Chapter 9: Cold Lips

About three days have passed without any contact with Fionna. Flame Prince laid down on his back on the floor of the flame lion's cave while staring up at the rocky ceiling. Cubs crawled on top of his chest and rolled off his stomach while others bounced around the bored boy. Finally, after getting no response for half an hour one snuggles under his arm, one near his head and the other on his stomach, purring. His eyes are filled with boredom and the want for her.

For the last two days he waited outside the cave, waiting for her to come over the hill and walk casually towards him with pink cheeks. However, she did not come. Flame Prince became so bored that in the afternoon of the third day he went to visit Old Tree Trunks. He was useful being a sitting stove for his apple pies. He left when Ms. Pig came.

It is the morning of the fourth day, he gave up looking outside and closes his eyes. His thoughts wander off to Fionna. Her confidence, timidness, tomboy personality...her body. He stops and quickly opens his eyes with a hot red face. Finally, to walk off any more of those thoughts he stands up to walk outside the cave. In precaution, he takes his gloves and boots. The cubs follow.

Flame Prince groans when the sunlight hits his face, but sighs at a cool rush of air. The cubs do the same, one of them eats a flower out of curiosity and then jumps back from the sight of a purple cloud. The rest do the same and run back into the cave.

"Oh my Glob it's you," says LSP in a nonchalant voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I...live here?"

"You live in the wilderness?! I thought I was the only one!" he exclaims and waves his arms in excitement. "Awesome, finally, we can have GUY TI-AHHH!" a random vulture swoops down upon LSP. "NO JENNIFER I DON'T WANT TO DATE YOU!"

Flame Prince watches the cloud run away while being pecked, sighs and sits down on a rock. He spots Old Tree Trunks jumping up and down attempting to get an apple obviously too high for him. "Oh..." he can hear him muttering sadly, "I just won't have enough apples to make pie...oh well." He hangs his head in shame with his trunk still up.

Sighing, Flame Prince puts his gloves on and leisurely pulls the apple from the tree and plops it in the grasp of the old elephant's trunk. "Oh! Oh!" he holds up the apple happily, "I did it!" He turns, "Oh, Flame Prince! Good morning to you! Look! I was able to get an apple!"

He grins, Old Tree Trunks is too cute to be told the truth. "Uhm...good morning," a late response, but the elephant didn't seem to mind.

"Usually Fionna or Cake get my apples..." he puts the fruit in his basket, "But I haven't seen them for a while...I wonder how they are," he walks off.

This begins to worry the prince, but the statement isn't enough to convince him to show up at Fionna's tree fort. "She's probably on an adventure..." he whispers to himself and begins mindlessly strolling away from the cave and Tree Trunks' house.

_That night with her wasn't bad right? Were the kisses too much? Too little? Am I doing something wrong? Maybe...I'm not kissing her right, or not cool enough?_ Flame Prince pauses in his walk noticing that he had wandered off from his home, but still kept on while thinking.

_Or maybe...she's in trouble?! _ The Candy Kingdom came into his view. _No, no, maybe she's with Gumball...yeah._

The castle is within less than a mile from where he stood, but he felt a bit strange to enter without Fionna by his side. He turns to return, but hears a cry, "Flame Prince!"

He expects to see Fionna waving her hand and running towards him, but they were just a group of candy people, mostly girls, from the ball. Ice cream Girl, Cinnamon Bun, Lollipop Boy, Ms. Cupcake, Ms. Candycane, Starchy, a few marshmallows and Gumdrop Lad. "Can I have an autograph please?" begs the girls at different times.

"You were super cool beating up the Ice Queen!" says Gumdrop Lad. "Well...I didn't see it, but Prince Gumball said it was superb!"

"Oh...uh..." Flame Prince doesn't know how to respond even though he is already signing the girl's random items.

"And we heard from Choose Goose that you saved her from the fire in the market!" squeals Ms. Cupcake. She continues to talk with a flustered face as Cinnamon Bun is blabbing on random words he can't even understand.

A sleek shadow shrouds over the crowd for a second, Flame Prince didn't need to look up. Prince Gumball gets off Lord Monochrome's back, "There you guys are! Oh, Good morning Flame Prince, how are you and Fionna?"

"She's...not with you?" Flame Prince makes his way through the crowd and approaches Gumball. "I...thought she would be aiding you..."

"No, I haven't heard of her since the ball," this shocks Flame Prince. "Have you checked out her tree fort? Why don't I give you a ride?"

Lord Monochrome flinches and backs away. With an awkward smile Flame Prince answers, "No thanks, I can walk there...but..uhm...where exactly is it?"

...

"Ah..." groans Fi. Her face and clothes are drenched with sweat and the saltiness stung her eyes. Her blurred vision makes her unable to see where she is or if there are any other people in the room. However, she did know, she is trapped. Her wrists are cuffed with chains which are hot from the heat of the room. Even her legs are chained to the ground. She can't move.

"Fionna!"

"Cake?" she strains her eyes to open and sees a bit of her sister. "W-What happened?"

"I don't know!"

Cake is trapped under a huge rock, preventing her from morphing out from under it. To avoid getting squished to death she had to make half of her body flat, but she still couldn't escape. "I-It looks like a cave! There's a bunch of rocks and..." she gasps, "An exit!" She continues to struggle, trying to push the rock off, but the exterior is too hot, she stops. "It's hot!" she moans and then tries to stretch her arms to break Fionna's chains.

"No good Cake, they need a key," Fi can feel the edge of the lock against her sweaty fingers. "Ugh, where's the key?"

"Ssssso we wait?" a hissing voice resounds against the walls where the exit is located. "How will he know?"

A different voice answers, "I left a ransom note, and when he comes to rescue his acquaintances..."

"We'll pour icccce on him!"

"Wait.." the footsteps came closer as Cake ponders, "I know these voices."

"Y-you do?" Fi's voice is becoming raspy.

Cake gasps. "You two!"

Titaia and Fina stood proudly between them with huge grins across their faces. "Enjoying your sssstay?"

"Who are you?!" growls Fionna as she tugs against her chains without any luck.

Titaia leans in close and laughs, "Members of Flame Prince's family. How do you do?"

"Yesss, and when he comes to rescue you we'll extinguishhh him just like hisss mother did to oursss!" Fina menaces her tongue at Cake.

"But he'll beat you like he did last time!" yells Cake who continues trying to push the huge boulder off her stomach. "You even admitted it! He's strong!"

"Oh, but that's where you two come in," Titaia and Fina start walking back to the exit. "He can't attack us in this area..."

"Or elssse," Fina smiles, "The heat of his fireballssss will make this placccce hotter!"

"Making you two closer to death," finishes Titaia. The two of them are too busy admiring their clever plan they didn't realize a tiny flame lion slipping through their path. "Although...holding him hostage wouldn't be a bad idea," Titaia turns around to go up a step.

"F-Flare?" whispers Cake and held her scream when Flare spits the flame shield on her. It is a relief to not feel tortured by the increasing heat any longer.

"HEY!" yells Fina when she sees the flame lion in front of Fionna. She charges toward her.

"Eep!" squeals Flare and spits.

"Ah!" yells Fi for Flare only spit out a tiny bit of fire on her leg.

"S-Sorry! Panicked!" Fina is ready to snatch her up, but Flare quickly chants the spell and spits right on Fionna's forehead. "Your Majesty, help!"

"The iccce Titaia! The iccce!" screams Fina as she throws Flare against the wall.

Cake gasps and takes Flare in her arms, "Flare!"

Fionna shakes her legs and arms for the chains to loosen up a little. Since she is immune to the temperature now she can fight as much as she wants until the chains are thrown off. She starts to worry when she sees Titaia run out of the cave and Fina with a huge evil smirk. "F-Flame Prince," her mouth is dry and her voice sounded like a raspy whisper.

"Hello, coussssin," greets Fina while doing a sarcastic bow. "I sssee you saw our note."

Flame Prince steps in with a straight mouth and eyes filled with anger and grief. His head turns from Cake holding Flare to Fionna in chains making his eyes burst in flames. Without warning he runs at Fina with his flame sword in his hand and swings blindly at her. "I will kill you," he growls while cutting Fina's face. "Would you like that tongue to be split any further?"

"That anger and those eyes..." Fina dodges the attack, stalling, waiting.

His sword disappears and he is ready to use his fists. "Just like my mother's?" he asks while landing a punch against her face. While Fina is down groaning in pain Flame Prince hits the boulder on top of Cake with all his might. It breaks and crumbles, releasing Cake who tries joining into the fight. "Cake, take Fionna and go!"

"I want to fight too!" says a raspy Fionna as Cake breaks the chains on her legs and hands.

"No," Flame Prince grabs her shoulders and pulls her in a close hug. "I'm sorry Fionna, I didn't think us being together would turn out like this."

"Flame Pri-"

It is quick, but it felt long. The longest five seconds of her life. She wasn't even ready to accept it, but she did. The warmth and the softness of his lips are too hard to resist and too easy to melt into. He also felt the same. He wanted more, but not now. He parts their once locked lips and smiles at her blushing face. Cake is too distracted by the cute scene that she didn't notice Titaia hovering with a bowl of ice.

"Ah!" Flame Prince falls against upon Fionna when he feels a sharp, cold pain on his head, traveling to his back and then his whole entire body.

She can feel him shiver and fade into grey so quickly, "Flame Prince!" She holds him tightly, feeling smoke leave his body, "No, no, no!"

Cake grabs Titaia by the neck and smashes her against the wall, and then takes a hold of Fina, picks her up and crash on the ground again. Still holding Flare, she uses her other arm to wrap around Flame Prince and Fionna's waists and pulls them out of the cave.

...

As soon as they reached the end of the cave and into the sunlight Cake finds the biggest rock available and blocks the cave. "Phew," she sighs and twists her head to Fionna who laid over Flame Prince.

"Flame Prince?" she is hoping to get some sort of response from the grey lifeless prince.

He said nothing.

She holds back her tears, "Flame Prince?" She puts her head on his chest and bites down on her lip, "UGH!"

Flare wakes up from the sound of Fionna's cries of frustrations and winces at the bump on her head. "Your Majesty?!" she runs to Flame Prince and feels his hand with her paw. Cold. Almost like the feeling of a dead person. No, it is exactly how it feels. She panics, "Oh, your Majesty!" she begins to mourn. "I'm sorry!"

"Can't fire heal him?" suggests Cake who began to pat Fionna's back.

"...I don't know," Flare whimpers, "The good thing is that he didn't actually 'die out.'"

"What do you mean?" asks Fionna.

"When fire is extinguished it turns to ashes or something right? It sorta goes the same for fire people," Flare tries to lighten Fi up. "So, maybe there is a chance of saving him. This is just his doused state, meaning he is weak, but not dead!"

"Thank Glob!" cries Fionna and presses her lips against Flame Prince's again. Hoping he would be okay. His lips are not warm, but they are still soft, yet cold. She can feel him try to make an effort to respond to her kiss. So weakly...


	10. Chapter 10: Incognito Time

"We have to take him back to the Fire Kingdom."

"What?!" gapes Cake. "Can't we just take him to Gumball and let him check him out?"

Flare stomps her paw, "You think the Candy Kingdom can provide Flame Prince the medicine he needs to survive? The Fire Kingdom has it there!"

"But what about his mother?!"

"Think of his sake and not yours!"

"I'm thinking of both fool!"

The two of them went back and forth as Fionna thinks about this while putting a hand on Flame Prince's cold cheek. The verbal battle between Cake and Flare starts fading away softly as she puts her head on his chest. She listens to his faint heartbeat and bites her lip, stops. "I can't carry him to the Flame Kingdom!" yells Flare.

DING. DING.

"I got an idea," Cake stretches an ear to Flare and she whispers her sly plan leaving Fionna in curiosity.

"What?" she puts Flame Prince's head gently on the ground and rushes over to them. "I _know_ it involves me."

"Well, it involves being polite..." starts Flare.

"And wearing a dress," squeals Cake.

"...I'm out," Fi starts heading back to Flame Prince.

...

"I can't believe I'm doing this," groans Fionna while holding Flame Prince's arm over her neck. She blushes a little as his cheek rubs against hers, "Coast clear yet?"

"Not yet," whispers Flare.

Cake and Fionna stood hidden in a closet inside the Fire castle with Flare standing guard. It took an hour trying to pose as sculptures or paintings to go past guards, servants and peasants wandering around the halls. They are just a few feet from their destination, but a group of slackers are blocking their way gossiping.

"So, haven't seen Flame Prince around anymore," says a gruff voice.

"Yeah, maybe he found himself a dame."

Laughter echoes the hallway, "Nah, poor girl would have to go through Flame Queen."

The gruff voice adds, "Plus I don't think he can find anyone out there."

Fionna puffs her cheeks up. Flare's voice is heard nearby, "Hey! Snack time!"

"Snacks!" cheered the bystanders one by one and their footsteps disappeared from the left end of Fionna's ear.

"The coast is-OW!"

"Oops!" Cake picks Flare up, "Sorry."

"All right, let's go," Cake swings the door open for her and Flame Prince is laid against the shut door

The room is filled with different kinds of clothing for both men and women on hangers. Masks litter the floor and boots with missing pairs hide underneath the clothes or stand alone in the corner. Flare and Cake immediately head to the area where extravagant dresses are hung.

Fi can hear Cake and Flare shuffling through hangers and clothing, but she paid attention to Flame Prince's face. Even if he is doused and she had flame shield on a little bit of caution came to mind as she tried stroking her fingers through his hair. "I hope you'll be all right...AH!"

A flaming red ball gown dress is thrown on top of her, "Best in the drama room."

Flare drops a mask in front of Fionna's feet and throws one to Cake. "You must act like her servant," she commands to the cat rubbing her hurt nose. "You must act like-"

"A princess, I know," Fi reluctantly pulls on the dress over her head and struggles on stuffing her arms in the sleeves. The dress had a jewel on the middle of her chest and had a lacy design around the neckline. Tints of yellow sparkled throughout the dress and the bottom fell down like a waterfall upon a waterfall...if it's even possible. However, it is three layers and even though she can't feel the scorching heat of the Fire Kingdom she already feels her temperature rising in her legs. "Oh Glob! It's hot!"

"Just like you, Fi!" Cake places the mask on her gorgeous sister's face. "All right, phase one get in the castle, phase two get dress, phase three...?"

"Look like the heroine...and approach Flame Queen," finishes Flare with nervousness in her voice. "Oh, boy, she'll put the blame on me later, but it is my fault. I didn't look after him..." she takes a deep breath. "Okay, Cake you hold Flame Prince up, Fionna you walk between Cake and I..."

...

Flame Queen sat on her throne, above her is an empty lamp. She sighs sadly with an arm holding her heavy head. She left her son in the hands of a flame lion, what was she thinking? Maybe she has been too caught up excitement of him taking over a village she didn't think of his safety. No, she knows, he is strong enough to handle things by himself, he is born from her anyways. Any enemy he can handle as long as evil strung through his veins and the crave of power controlled his mind he can do anything. If he became good, could that weaken him? Could it taint him? No such thing should happen to him, she will not allow it.

"THE PRINCE HAS RETURNED!" screams one of her guards in the front of her palace. "HE HAS RETURNED!"

Flame Queen stands up from her chair with excitement and happiness pounding in her heart. "My son?" she feels...positive emotions, love?

"HE BRINGETH A DAME!"

"A dame?!" now, she's really excited. "He has found a bride?" Her smile disappears when she sees Flame Prince being held by Cake and Flare running towards her. "Flare..." she growls, "Why is he harmed?!"

"Uh..eh..." Flare forgot her lines in fear and stared right up into Flame Queen's endless black eyes.

Fionna bravely steps in, "Uhm, your Majesty!" She puts her arms in the air gracefully, "I have brought back your son, Flame Prince!" Flame Queen changes her glance right into Fionna's soul. "Uhm...uhm! He is like this for he has been attacked by your nieces Titaia and Fino!"

"Fina..."

"Fina! They attempted to extinguish him with ice, but he is still alive, yet weak!" she stands there with her arms still up in the air, shaking.

Flame Queen continues to stare into Fionna's eyes and then trails off to her doused son. "Guards, take him to his chambers and heal him," Fi sees Flame Prince whisked away from Cake's arms into two guards'. "Flare, I'll have a talk with you later..." Flare runs after Flame Prince. "And you!" she jabs a finger at Fionna, "Who are you?"

"P-Princess Fionna, your Majesty, from eh, Faraway!" Cake bows as low as she can and Fi does the same.

"Never heard of you."

"Oh, but she is very famous for her..." Cake's eyes wander to the side and sees food, "Cooking! Her cooking! And..."

"Is she...evil?"

Fionna gulps.

"Oh yeah! Real evil! Nasty!" Cake twirls her arms around. "You should see her in action! Taking over the villages and stuff! Oh, oh, and slaying everything with her mighty sword! Treating servants like dirt!" she starts panting.

Silence passes, making Cake tense and Fionna's heart beat like crazy.

Flame Queen stands so abruptly that Cake jumps back and Fi lets out a little squeak. "You...are a suitable wife!" she lifts her arms in the air and the bystanders around her clap loudly and laugh. "SILENCE!" she then stoops eye to eye with the shaking "princess." "Princess Fionna..." Fi's knees began to shake and Cake clutched on a seam of Fi's dress. "Why don't you...cook us a meal? I'd like to taste your culinary skills..."

"R-Right away!" she dimly takes a step forward and trips on her dress. Cake catches her and she giggles nervously, "I'm sorry, Flame Prince is still...a concern in my mind."

"Oh, don't worry about him," assures the Queen in a very gentle voice. "He'll be fine."

...

A familiar scent came to Flame Prince's nose and he breathes it in and sighs. Suddenly, he remembers and sits up quickly, making the doctors and nurses around him back up against the wall. They fear him, but wish to serve him. Just like his mother. "Where am I?!" he demands and begins getting ready to serve a fireball.

"W-Wait! Wait! Your Majesty! We were just healing you!" the main doctor had dropped his medicine box and slammed against a shelf. Yet, he is too fearful to stoop down and pick the items up. "P-Please, don't harm us!"

They are cowering. He should enjoy this.

He doesn't.

He puts his hands down and hangs his legs over the rocky table's edge. "Flame Prince, don't! You're still a little weak!" a nurse approaches him and touches his arm. The rest of the staff gasp and realizing what she has done she bows down with fear of being executed right here, now. "I'm sorry! Your Majesty, forgive me!"

"Why should I punish you?" Flame Prince knew it is wrong to do what he is doing, but he did it. He gently holds her shoulders and makes her stand, "You were only trying to help me."

A compassionate gaze went through everyone's hearts. However, it flickers back to cold, but they no longer quivered as he commands them, "Who brought me here?"

"A beautiful dame who claims to be your bride, and her spotted servant!" answers the flustered nurse.

"I heard she is now cooking for the Flame Queen," adds the doctor.

"Oh, how exciting! Oh, Flame Prince? You're leaving?"

"Yes..." Flame Prince puts a hand on his head, "I'm going to see my bride."

He marches down the hall, back straight, eyes forward, eyebrows furrowed and a straight face. Two servants chatting nonchalantly to each other immediately shout, "Your Majesty!" and one of them accidentally smashes into the wall.

"Your Majesty!" the same group who were running their mouths on him earlier all bow down shamefully.

He doesn't cast any of them an evil glance, but a tiny smirk. He can feel his confidence rising. He is at home where power is all in his hands. He can do anything to these servants, even execute them without a reason whenever he felt like it. The feeling of people bowing down to him, calling him "Your Majesty," and feeling fear in his presence...he remembers it all. A cackle releases from his mouth, filled with darkness. However, he immediately stops right when he began.

"This place will poison me once more," he takes his hand away and replaces his thoughts with Fionna. A crash is heard across the hallway with a familiar scream, "Fionna?" He rushes and yanks the door open to happily see her on the floor with a pot on her head.

"Stupid dress," he can hear her mutter while approaching her. She gasps when she gets the pot off her head, "Flame Prince!"

He pulls her into a tight hug, eyes shut with a huge smile on his face. She is his antidote. He opens his eyes when he winces at pinching feelings on his thigh. He faces Fionna, seeing her crying silently by biting down on her lip. "S-Sorry, it's hurting you, right?" she wipes her tears with the back of her hand. She hiccups.

Noticing she is safe to touch, he reaches to wipe the tears away with his finger. It didn't sting that bad, so he didn't react. "You're beautiful," he comments and she blushes while holding in sniffles. "I'm fine Fionna," he assures her by placing a kiss on her forehead, and then her cheek, nose and finally...

"AH! I forgot I was making something for your mom!" Fi stands up leaving Flame Prince to pout by himself for a few seconds.


	11. Extra: Boys

[I am trying to recreate chapter 11, but it is challenging to me. The original is on my laptop, but unfortunately the hard drive has been fried and I am uncertain whether I can recover the data or not. So...this is a little extra for my readers with the 3 boys in Fionna's life. IT DOES NOT INTERVENE WITH THE STORY THIS IS JUST A LITTLE EXTRA. Enjoy]

Boredom is something even meditation can't soothe away.

Flame Prince has spent two hours lying on his back, facing the ceiling and shooting tiny flames in the air. He kept going until he heard a low echo from the entrance of the cave. He recognizes the voice, knew he might end up in some sort of trouble, but really had nothing to do for the entire day while Fionna is on an adventure. Lazily, he stands up, not noticing a flame lion sitting on top of his head, and starts walking out. He can hear the voice get clearer and louder, "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" it sang. He winces when Marshall Lee hits a high note while screaming, "Yeahh!"

"What do you want?" he groans as the flame lion hops off his head.

Marshall adjusts his bass to hang over his back while shielding the sun with his umbrella. "You bored?"

"Yeah."

"C'mon, let's go bother Gumwad at the Candy Kingdom," says Marshall with a smirk.

Flame Prince started out sluggishly, and then when the vampire turned his back the sneaky prince sprints ahead. "What the Glob man?!" exclaims Marshall as he tries flying side by side with the athletic Flame Prince. "Really think you can beat me?"

Flame Prince can see the Candy Kingdom peeking over a hill, "It is unfair," he huffed, "That you are not exerting any physical energy through flying."

Just a few more meters.

"Psh, I can still top you," Marshall refused to slow himself down as he started to place a foot on the ground. The grass caught on his toe and made him face plant right in front of the draw bridge.

Flame Prince jogs past him victoriously and waited for his companion to join him at the entrance of the castle. "Sore?"

"Shut up," the vampire really wishes he can push him. However, he is hurt from the fall, a little ticked off, so he jokingly shoves Flame Prince's shoulder hard. "Ow..." he shakes his hand for the heat to die away.

"Hurt?"

"Nah, it's better than standing in the sun," he flies up to the balcony leaving Flame Prince to find his own way inside.

...

Prince Gumball is either trying out new recipes or experiments in his little laboratory. Today he found a way to have fun with all the free time he has with changing, or inventing new shades on candy, trying to make candy healthy, and making various cakes, sodas and sweets. Usually, he had Fi taste test his results, but it would feel weird to do so... He needs...someone else to keep him company.

"Hey!"

Not that kind of company.

"What?" grunts Gumball while taking his next cake out of the oven.

Marshall throws his umbrella in a corner and floats on top of Gumball's head while pinching his cheeks into a smile. "C'mon, you're gonna get fat eating all those sweets!" He pinches harder making PG drop his cake just to try and push him away, "I can already feel the fat coming on to your face!"

"Schtop!"

Flame Prince slipped on his gloves before opening the doors to see the chaos Marshall Lee already caused. A splattered cake on the floor along with cupcakes, a variation of colors mixing together to form a dark, icky sight, and poor Prince Gumball attempting to fight against his stronger foe. Carefully, Flame Prince tiptoes over the mess and in front of the two frenemies. "Uhm...hey."

"Oh, you finally came," Marshall let's go of his victim and looks around, "Whoa, you need to clean up."

"Urgh!" is all that can come out of PG's mouth. He starts searching for a rag to wipe up the now black liquid up and ignores Marshall, "Flame Prince, good morning to you..."

"Morning," answers Flame Prince awkwardly. The vampire shrugs and starts strumming his bass while floating around the lab station. Why did he come? The tension between the sweet Prince and the rebellious one is just too much for Flame Prince to stand between. Remembering that he came to get rid of boredom he decides to help PG by picking up the cupcakes from their wrappers. Curiosity overcame him, even though he isn't a fan of sweets, he sticks his tongue out to taste the icing. "Huh...this isn't bad."

Gumball turns around after dumping the rag in a nearby trash can to see Flame Prince gobbling up the cupcake. He smiles, "Flame Prince there are much more fresh ones behind you on the table."

Marshall Lee floats upside down in front of the cupcakes, "Aw man FP don't get into sweets. You'll get all chubby like Gumwad."

"I'm not chubby!" yells Gumball as Flame Prince chows down his third cupcake.

With a burp he stops and licks his lips while watching PG and Marshall Lee go at it again. Bluntly, like always, he says, "You guys must be real close friends."

"Friends with him?" exclaims Gumball.

"Sure, we're the best of 'em," says Marshall sarcastically. "Hey, instead of getting fat, why don't we go out?"

"You might burn from the sun," mumbles PG.

"How thoughtful," comments Flame Prince who is now munching on cookies he found.

"Ooh!" Marshall grabs the bag of marshmallows next to Flame Prince, looks for the sharpest and thinnest material he could find (candy sticks), stuck three marshmallows on and began roasting them on top of FP's head. "Whala!" he puts the gooey marshmallow in his mouth.

Flame Prince removes one glove, takes a marshmallow and roasts it while holding it. He eats it and quickly looks for the bag for more. "I didn't think you of all people would have a sweet tooth," says Gumball while putting marshmallows on a candy stick. He couldn't resist.

"Does...Fionna have one?"

"I wouldn't say so," answers Gumball. "She never really asked for sweet treats or anything."

"She's more of a meat person," says Marshall. "You know, like hot dogs, sausages, steak, all that good stuff."

Gumball asked, "How skillful are you with your fire?"

"He can't talk right now," points out Marshall Lee. The prince dared himself to stuff three marshmallows at the same time and took his time chewing on them to avoid choking. "This guy man," he answers for him, "This guy is good."

FP blinks and winces at the huge amount of food he swallowed, "Ugh...what you need?"

"He's probably is going to use you for something fruity..."

"Quiet Marshall," hushes Gumball. "Help me with this experiment," he looks for something under his lab station and retrieves a bucket full of sugar and begins boiling it down to a liquid form. "This will be quick," he points to Marshall, "I want you to fly around and pour the sugar in a 360 angle."

"Huh?"

"Fly in circles," PG looks at Flame Prince, "I want you to blast the sugar with your flames as soon as Marshall starts pouring."

"READY SET GO!" Marshall flies outside without any directions of where PG wants the experiment to be done and what the results would be.

Flame Prince jumps out the window and sees Marshall high up in the air getting ready to spin with the bucket in his arms. The moment he sees a drop almost hit the ground Flame Prince surrounds the sugar with a fire twister. Burning, hardening the sculpture into a beautiful, pink, sparkly twisting shape. All done in a quick second. It seemed as if it were starting from the ground and that it would topple so easily for the point holding it up is so small.

"That was cool!" the boys turn and see Fionna with her pink sword hunched on her shoulder.

Cake twists her body around the figure, "Whooo!"

"Hey Fi," says Marshall smoothly, but she runs past him towards Flame Prince. He sulks next to Gumball, "Guy is lucky," he admits.

"Yeah..."

"Hey, why didn't you, you know...take a cha-"

"You don't know what you have until you lose it Marshall Lee," replies Gumball. He finds out Cake has been staring at him by the side with a scrunched up smiling face, "What?"

"Jealous."

[Hope you enjoy this short!]


	12. Chapter 11: Get Ready Fionna

Flame Prince doesn't stand up but crosses his legs and puts his hands on his knees. He can see that Fionna is focusing on making this dish perfect for his mother which is a very hard thing to do. Messing up this dish could also be the last thing to make if it isn't delicious. However, he doesn't doubt Fionna and leaves her digging in pantries and cabinets while he shuts his eyes to meditate.

Meditation is probably the only thing that kept him sane when he was enclosed in the lamp. He found it useful when the joker seemed more annoying than usual, when he heard gossip about him and especially when he was alone, which was mostly all the time. Now, he chooses to meditate for he can feel the darkness of the Fire Kingdom slowly creeping into his mind. He needs to stay calm and push it out. Stay calm. Stay…

A pair of hands grabs Flame Prince out of the kitchen and throws him on the ground. He gets into battle position, but the young man holds up his hands above his face. He wore armor, a helmet, and had a huge spiked melee tucked by his side. "Wait, your Majesty!" he yells and Flame Prince withdraws his fireballs.

"…Yes?"

"We heard of your return," he doesn't know who _we_ are. "And we would like to see you at the arena as soon as I tell you this message."

"…Why?" he remembers the arena. When his mother was in a good mood she would let him out once or twice a month to battle other boys in the arena. He always was the one to triumph in victory, the one the boys his age would scowl at and the one flame women would swoon over if he wasn't so scary.

"We want to challenge you again! The same five that were defeated by you so long ago," the young man cringes at letting his pride drop. "It's…been a year since we last fought, remember?"

"…No," but Flame Prince does remember last year his mother stopped taking him out. Laziness?

"Flame Prince?" Fionna peeks outside of the door.

"Intruder?!" the boy lifts his club, and without thinking, Flame Prince shields Fionna letting the spiked club rip his shirt. "Ah! Forgive me!"

"Do not harm...my bride." He pushes the weapon back and with embarrassment the boy knelt down for forgiveness, "I'll meet you at the arena."

"Thank you, your Maje-"

"But I won't go easy on you," he points to his ruined shirt as a reminder and walks towards Fi who is still blushing at the sound of him calling her his "bride."

"Uh, uhm," she leads him back in the kitchen and sees his chest peeking out from the tears of his shirt. "Are you okay?!"

Flame Prince puts his whole body weight on Fi that she falls back with a flustered face. She can feel his cheek rub against hers as she places her hands on his back, "Are...you okay?"

"This...is my favorite shirt," he stands up to rid of it and Fionna quickly draws her eyes away to the cauldron where her stew boiled. "What you put in it?"

"Uhm...uh," she taps the wood under the cauldron with her foot, "Meat...pepper...all that good stuff, wanna taste?"

"Sure," she takes a scoop with a wooden spoon and slowly gestures it to his mouth. Madly blushing, unable to keep the spoon still, almost spilling it on his bare chest, Flame Prince can see how flustered Fionna is. Smiling, he opens his mouth to take in another delicious stew of hers...

"SURPRISE ATTACK!" Flame Prince falls back from Flare pouncing on his chest. "Whoa...what happened to your shirt? Even though we don't need to hide anything..." she shakes her head, "Anyways, they want you down at the arena."

"Now?" Fi asks with hidden agitation.

"Yup! And Flame Queen wants her stew," reminds Flare as Flame Prince lifted himself up. "Go! Go! Go!"

"Uhm...come down later?" he asks with an awkward smile.

"S-Sure..." she waves and waits for the door to close before she could puff her cheeks. "Well, who needs his opinion? I can judge this myself! I'm sure flame shield works on food right?" she takes a huge bite of her stew.

...

"What was that?" asked Flame Queen after she heard a shrill scream.

Cake could tell it was from the kitchen, "I-I'm sure nothing happened." She sure hoped Fi didn't do something stupid that would blow her cover. For the past twenty minutes she had been sitting down at the foot of Flame Queen listening to the joker play his un-tuned ukulele. Deeply, annoying...her. She grabs the mistreated instrument and began to tune it herself. The joker and the other spectators watch her struggle and make funny faces while trying to find the right note. Finally, she has done it and began dancing, strumming and singing random verses off her head.

"Oh, play something about the Prince," suggests a listener.

"Oh..." she strums a chord. "Hmm...OH! He's super hot!"

Flame Queen watches her servants dancing around with Cake, laughing, singing and twirling. Having fun.

Fun.

Is that something she is able to join?

Laughter.

Has she ever laughed from her heart?

Amusement.

She can only find it when executing people. However, she did like to watch plays, yet she did not cry in tragedies and not even let out a chuckle in comedies. She is not an open book. She is a supreme ruler who craves power, destruction and fear. Positive feelings such as happiness could bring her down, make her weak, powerless. She does not want that.

"Oh, Fi!" Cake sees her sister coming from the hallway slowly with shaking legs, holding a heavy pot. Cake takes it, "What the glob happened to you, girl?"

Fionna's face is red, her eyes as well, her mouth a little puckered with a sniffling nose. "Uhm..."

"You tasted it didn't you?"

"Yeah...all I have to drink is my frickin' saliva," says Fionna dryly.

"Ah, just in time before we see my son battle," Flame Queen jumps out of her throne, landing with a thump which echoed through the castle. She picks up the cauldron that seems to be a mug for her size and sips it. Her eyes widen, "This is delicious..."

"I wish it was to me..." says Fionna silently, but she feels prideful and fist bumps Cake.

Flame Queen finishes the stew in just a few seconds, "Now then," she drops it on one of her servants, "Let's go see how my son is doing...I hope his battle skills haven't weakened when he was gallivanting with you."

"What's that supposed to-" Cake nudges Fi's side, "I mean, I'm sure he didn't..."

...

The arena is huge and filled about two-thirds with cheering fans of Flame Prince and the young men he is facing. Three are starving to beat him after tasting defeat when they first met and two are the toughest warriors in the Flame Kingdom. Most of the fans of Flame Prince are girls, sighing at his skinny, fit and muscular body. He doesn't much fans who were men for they either envied him or doubt his strength against his opponents. Either way, he doesn't care. Now, in Flame Prince's perspective it is just him and the enemy.

The rebellious knight who refused to put on his helmet is the first to charge straight at the Prince. Head on, with sharp daggers about two feet long in each hand. Flame Prince stands and equipped his flame sword in a quick second. With a quick, swift swing the blade could have cut the knight in half starting from his head. However, the knight uses both his daggers to keep the sword from touching his nose. Flame Prince's head is just a few inches from his own sword. The crowd hears the metal slide against each other as Flame Prince pushes his sword in the air causing the knight to let go of his daggers and let them fly in the air. Afraid, he faces Flame Prince and receives a painful headbutt.

Flame Prince stands unaffected.

Next.

Another man steps up, but before taking aim at Flame Prince he raises his sword in the air and roars. His fans cheer and whistle for him. He swung his large one sided sword around to show off. With his surprise, he sees that Flame Prince makes his sword disappear, but it feels as if his job is made easier. He drags his sword on the ground, jumps with it over his head and with all his might, swings it down upon Flame Prince. The crowd gasps, and Fionna, standing near the entrance below the seats gapes. The dust clears.

Flame Prince, with two hands, held the sword from touching his flame. He pushes it back and watches the heavy man fall. He expected him to get up, but it seems he is only knocked out.

"Yeah! Flame Prince!" he can always point out her voice. "Whoo!"

Flame Prince turns and flashes a smile, "Fionna..."

She blushes, but her cheeks return color quickly when she hears, "He smiled at me!"

"No, he smiled at me?!"

Fi grits her teeth, "He smiled at me," and puffs her cheeks.

"So, how do you think of his strength?" asks Flame Queen. Fi hears a thud and sees she missed the action of Flame Prince taking down the third man, but Flame Queen keeps talking. "Nothing seems to have changed in him, that's good."

"Mmm..."

"OH MY GLOB!" she turns to Cake. "DID YOU SEE THAT?! THAT WAS LIKE WHOO! AND HE WAS ALL LIKE GRR AND FLAME PRINCE WAS ALL LIKE NO!"

"What?" Fi turns to see the fourth man is already on the ground.

Even though there is one left Flame Prince starts walking towards Fionna. "Hey," he shoots a fireball at the last man standing.

"H-Hey," she blushes. While she watched him battle the first two men she couldn't help but stare at his toned stomach and admire his thin waist. "You did awe-"

"AWESOME MAN!" yells Cake who is bouncing around.

"Yes...awesome," agrees Flame Queen.

Flame Prince makes a face when he hears his mother say "awesome." He leans towards Fionna, "Ready to go?" he whispers.

"Why?"

"...I think it's better to-"

"I am glad to announce," the couple turn around to see Flame Queen in the middle of the arena. "Flame Prince...my son, has a bride," the crowd answered with mixed feelings that Fi couldn't determine. "SILENCE!" she roars. "Now, she has shown me that her cooking skills are professional, but I have not seen her determination to win. Determination to fight!" The sneaky queen smirks at Fionna and stretches a fiery arm to grab her to the center as well, "So, whoever wants to be Flame Prince's bride, come see me and you may be the ones to challenge his dear Fionna and become his bride."

"What?!"

"Don't worry, if you win, you will have him."

Flame Prince runs to Fionna to grab her arm and escape the premises. However, Flame Queen takes a hold of him and laughs as he stares her down with eyes bursting with flames. He continues to try and escape her grasp, but no luck. "I choose my bride! I know she is suitable! I lo-"

"What?" a cold stare makes him shut up. "Flame Prince you will marry someone who is strong, someone who will rule side by side with you. Love is not needed."

She begins to walk back to the castle. Fi yells, "Where are you taking him?!"

"Where he always stayed before he met you," the guards stop Fi in her tracks, "Until someone is claimed the winner you will not see or speak to him."

Cake punches the guards down, "C'mon Fi!" Fionna hops on her back and Cake tries chasing Flame Queen down, however, they are run down by a crowd of girls who are desperate to make Flame Prince theirs. "Ugh..." Cake rubs her head and sees Fionna's dress ripped. "Oh...Fi..."

"No," the adventurer had enough. "I will win, fair and square. I'll play her game and when I win we are out of here!" she roars with confidence. "He is _my_ man!"

"GIRL POWER! WHOO!"


	13. Chapter 12: Mr Lee

Flame Prince had his back turned from his mother and the women who lined up to get approved by her. He sat cross legged and tried meditating by blocking out the noise, but all he can hear are the chattering girls. Whenever he became so close to obtaining pure silence his concentration zooms into a conversation he did not want to hear. After five minutes he already gave in to propping his elbow on his knee, holding up his head by his chin and staring at the rocky wall through the glass.

Meanwhile, his mother is having troubles of her own selecting someone who would seem suitable for her destructive son. All the girls who approach her are mainly weak, fragile and unable to lift up or swing any of the weapons Flame Queen laid out among them. The flame girls she had in her kingdom are not considerable enough what she is looking for. Strength.

"Ready to give up?" she hears her son's muffled voice through the glass and she glances up to see him calmly meditating.

In a way, his tranquil mood bit into her, "Flame Prince, I'm only doing this for you."

He stands, turns, locks eyes with her with such bitterness and replies, "You're doing this for _yourself._ You are doing _nothing_ for me."

Flame Queen smiles, "You still have the same bitterness in your eyes..."

...

Meanwhile, Fionna and Cake fled the Flame Kingdom in order to train for the next day. However, Cake laid back to munch on sausage, steak, and cake BMO prepared for them while Fi swung her sword wildly at an evil animal who had the head of a lion, arms of a bear, bottom of a horse and chest of a hairy man. She madly swung at the arms and managed to scratch the defenseless chest four to five times. The beast roared and began to retaliate and then freak out when Fi kept heading towards him. "UNCLE! UNCLE!" he screamed and began running.

"GET BACK HERE I HAVE TO CHOP YOU UP!" she ran after him.

"Fi! C'mon! We got sassages!" yells Cake and stuffs another "sassage" in her mouth. "Mmm..."

"OOF!" Fi falls down and drops her sword. "Hey watch it!"

Marshall Lee floated in front of her with his umbrella blocking the sun from both of them and his bass hanging behind his back. He laughs, "Are you the one chasing tha-"

"HYAAA!" she ignores him and charges to where she last saw the beast. However, there is no trace of him any longer, "Aw man! He got away!"

"What's the big deal?" asks Marshall as he swipes a red flower and sips the color. "You finally coming to the dark side goody two shoes?"

"NO!" she retracts her sword and stuffs it in her bag. "Flame Prince...His mom wants me to defeat a bunch of warriors and if I win I get him."

"So...you're training?"

"Yeah..."

Marshall can see the sadness on her face and in her voice. He couldn't help but get the feeling to help out, but in his own mischief way. In a flash his evil laughter floods the air and he swoops down to prey on Cake. This time he takes her up in the air and flies south of Fionna, "C'mon Fi! Want your Cake back?"

"WHAFT ARE CHYOU DOINGF?!" hisses Cake who is frantically trying to chew down her food. She didn't think twice whenever she begins stuffing her mouth.

"Ugh, Marshall! This isn't the time for jokes!" Fi sets off to retrieve her sister back with a huge groan. "Marshall!" she growls at him and he looks back, but decides to fly faster to provoke her. "C'mon!" all his responses are that same cocky, mischievous laugh of his.

She enters into a graveyard and he sits upon a grave stone, "Hey sweetie, how you doing?"

"What...the heck?!" she pants, "Marshall?!"

One step forward.

"EEP!" a cold, firm hand clamped around Fionna's ankle and began pulling her down into the dirt.

"Fi?!" Cake tries to jump out of Marshall's arms, but he squeezes her tightly, "What you doing, fool?!"

"Training, don't help her baby cakes," he says in a suave voice and sets Cake next to him on the grave. He begins playing his bass guitar while watching his dead minions rise from the ground.

Fionna's foot is already a few inches into the ground in less than five seconds. Swiftly, she uses her free foot to break the bony hand and shatter into pieces. However, it meshed back into the dirt, the ground started to rumble and a huge skeleton rose from the grave. It wore a bandanna and did a thumbs up to Marshall Lee. She glares at the vampire not aware of more and more skeletons rising from their graves. Yet, she smashes the skull of the one creeping behind her after hearing the bones clatter with each other. They all moved with Marshall's bass playing.

He played a fast tune.

One by one the skeletons charge towards Fionna, trapped in the middle. After destroying five skulls with her fists she brings out her sword to avoid getting any more scratches from the flying shards of bone. The sword's sharpness slices through the ribs, skulls, arms and hips. However, they all kept repairing themselves slowly and moving towards her. Fi wipes the sweat dripping into her eyes and flashes her sword in the afternoon sun before striking again.

And again.

And again.

They kept regenerating. She is almost to the point where she can faint of exhaustion. In desperation, she peers over at Marshall Lee who is still lazing on the grave stone. Cake nudges him, but he does not budge and continues playing his bass. She attempts to grab it, but he floats high in the air and strums in a quick motion. "You know there's an easier way to defeat all of them at once," he calls out while floating near Fi.

She smashes a skull on her knee, "What?!"

"He's the boss," he motions to the huge skeleton she forgot about.

"Oh..." she blushes with frustration.

"You should have been weakening him from the start," says Marshall and stops strumming. "I'll make it easier for you."

The skeletons around her stop moving and sink back into the ground. Fi smiles and feels a little burst of energy revive her as she retracts her pink sword again and storms an attack on the last skeleton. The bony hand attempts to smash her on the ground, but he aimed a bit too early, letting her achieve the ability to jump upon his fist and stab the sword through his forehead. She pushes it deeper while hanging on to dear life as the skeleton swings back and forth trying to knock Fi off. However, a tiny crack is heard and the skull cuts in half. The body falls and Fi lets go of her sword and gives in to exhaustion.

Cake stretches her arms and catches her, "Oh Fi...MARSHALL LEE!" She can see the vampire floating away into the sunset, "HEY! WHAT THE HECK?! WHAT THE HECK?!"

"GOOD LUCK FIONNA!" he yells, laughs and continues floating away from the fuming Cake and nearly unconscious Fionna.

"Cake..." Fi groans weakly, "I...have to train."

"You trained enough!" scolds Cake. "Now, let's get you home and put some fat in you!"

"Ugh..." she knocks out.

...

"Hey...Fionna?" that familiar voice. "Wake up."

She gasps, "Flame Prince?!" Fi throws her blanket out of the way and jumps into Flame Prince's arms, "Oh my Glob! I'm not burning!"

"I know," she missed his smile and began to lean in...

All of a sudden, Cake jumps between them singing her tomato salsa song while shaking her buns. Marshall Lee enters the room with a dress on and starts to flirt with Flame Prince. "Fi! Fi! I became president of Ooo!" cheers Cake as she dances around Marshall and Flame Prince with little gummy horses, bears and a dolphin circling them.

Gumball twirls in with a lab coat on while singing in German. He skips around Fionna for a while and then disappears behind Marshall and comes out as LSP who then barfs out various sorts of stars.

"I found out I like Flame Prince," says Marshall in a suave voice and flips his hair. Flame Prince stood emotionless, but just put a hand on the vampire's shoulder.

"NO!" yells Fionna and hurdles towards them to...

End up on the floor of her bedroom.

"Fi? You okay?" Cake climbs up the ladder and sees Fionna on the floor. "Fi?"

Fionna laid face down on the boards and kept her head there for quite some time...

[epic battle b/w fionna and a bunch of flame women will be in ch. 13]


	14. Chapter 13: Too Epic for a Title

"FLAME PRINCE!"

His name is said so abruptly and loudly that he snaps out of his meditation, falls forward and ends up smacking his forehead against the glass. If he could withstand a headbutt he could withstand the unexpected pain ringing through his skull. With an annoyed look, he stands up while rubbing his head and turns to look at his mother. Around her stood three girls: one bulky, the other covered from head to toe with armor holding two big swords in each hand and a timid-looking one. They all stared up at him.

"..." he didn't know what to say.

"These are who are going to fight to be your bride," explains Flame Queen. "Meet Vesta," she motions at the bulky girl, "She may be quite large for your taste, but I assure you she is nearly as strong as you."

Flame Prince stares at her seeing that her arms are larger than his and she seems to have more abs than him. He will avoid imagining her carrying him down the aisle. She winks at him and he flinches.

"Next, Aden. I assure you her defense is perfect for battling and leading an army," says Flame Queen. The armored girl squeaks in her metal armor as she shows off her swords to Flame Prince. He gives no interest. "Finally, Idris. She sort of reminds me of you," she smiles, "Whenever you get her mad her flames can take down a whole entire kingdom."

Idris meets eyes with Flame Prince and quickly looks away with a blushing face. Flame Prince just thought of how Fi is like that, turning her face when she is embarrassed. Glob, he missed her. "Oh, do you have an attraction to Idris?" asks Flame Queen after catching a glimpse of his red cheeks.

"No."

Idris sniffles, whimpers and then starts to shiver. He began to get curious when her shivering increases, but then senses the danger of her anger. She bursts into intense flames and grew two times her size. Her flames stretching out to half of Flame Queen's size, bigger than the other two girls with fearful demonic eyes. However, a hiccup, and its all gone. She is back to her small state.

Everyone stood in silence and Idris runs out the door from embarrassment.

"Uhm...yeah," says Flame Queen and clears her throat. "I hope you will be looking forward to the battle Flame Prince and ladies," she faces them, "Show...no...mercy."

Flame Prince cringes and pushes away the thought of his beloved being trampled, kicked and burnt. He wants to protect her. He doesn't want to sit back and watch her fight alone. He doesn't doubt her strength, but he is fearful of the outcome. Her scars. It angers him.

Flame Queen is puts her hand in the air to dismiss Sera and Vesta, but pauses when she hears a dull sound behind her. She twists to see her son trying to break out of his glass chamber. He lashes out, throwing his two fists against the glass, feeling the pain on his knuckles, gritting his teeth and increasing the speed of the hits. The glass is thick. He never noticed that until now.

Desperate.

He smashes his head full force against the glass, enough to make a skull split.

He doesn't know what happened after that. Only that for a second he was standing there, wavering, looking at his mother's surprised face. Next, he lies on his back, facing the ceiling, pain everywhere, mostly his head. He turns to the side and with blurry vision he can see the shards of glass falling around him. Finally, he shuts his eyes and invites pitch darkness.

...

"You sure I should eat this much Cake?" asks Fi as Cake kept piling bacon or sausage on top of another.

"Heck yeah! Meat will build up strength girl!" she continues to pile the meat into a tower. "COOK MORE BMO!"

"Cake I can't make my stomach thinner like you," says Fi, but still munches on a piece of bacon. "Mmm...bacon."

"I wish I can taste it..." sadly mutters BMO at the stove.

Cake piles meat on her own plate, steals half of Fionna's and stuffs them in her mouth, "Sho," she says with her mouth full while chewing, "Whatsh shyour shecret shtraghedy?"

"What?"

"Shtra-" she gulps down the food with a content sigh, "Strategy."

"I don't know, I never met them. I'll just create one like I always do," Fi takes a bite out of her bacon.

"Like with Flame Prince?" asks BMO and Fi chokes and Cake laughs.

"Fi so hot she don't need strategy to pick up men," replies Cake.

"Oh, shut up," blushes the adventuress and looks in her bag one more time. All she had inside is her retractable sword.

It's all she needs.

She hopes.

"Mind if I join in?" asks a chilly voice. Everyone gasps when Ice Queen floats down on a chair next to Cake, "Hello."

"Ice Queen, what the doops?!" yells Fionna reaching for her sword.

"Whoa whoa, cool down," she grabs a sausage and bacon, "I'm just getting free food." She looks around the room ignoring glares being thrown at her from her "frenemies." She swallows,"So, where's your hot boyfriend?"

"Is that why you came?" Fi puts her sword against her chair and eats slowly. "He's back in the Fire Kingdom."

"Why don't you visit him?" growls Cake hoping Ice Queen would buzz off from her meal.

Ice Queen coughs and grabs Fi's glass of water, with a sigh she says, "Well, thanks for the meal ladies it was all right."

"What the bunk Ice Queen?!"

"What? I can't cook...plus all Gunter brings is fish and that's going to ruin my awesome bod," she floats away and BMO throws down his/her hat.

"All right? ALL RIGHT?!" the little computer shakes her hands in the air and then marches to the bathroom grumbling.

"Why's BMO going to the bathroom?" asks Fionna.

"Remember, BMO likes to pretend to be some real human or something?" replies Cake and sips her tea.

"Oh yeah...hey Cake, what d'ya think the other girls will be like?"

"All I can say is evil," Cake licks her plate and starts taking Fionna's food bit by bit. "Why don't we check 'em out early?"

"Huh?"

"She only said to not see Flame Prince, she didn't say anything about the ladies," Cake stands, getting ready to bounce out the window. "Let's go check out the butts you are about to kick!"

"Okay, let me pack some snacks," Fi opens a cabinet and finds two bags of marshmallows. "Mm, good old fluffy goodness," she inserts the candy in her backpack, sneaks a look at Cake and starts running towards the window. Before putting a foot on the edge Cake clasps on her back, lets hers thin and stretch out to form a parachute for the wind to blow them over the forest. "WHOO!"

...

Groggy. Everything is groggy.

His head, sight and sound around him. Unclear.

When the overlapping voices did become clear he dared not to open his eyes. He did_ not_ want make any interactions with the ones surrounding his bed side in the medical room. Vesta and Aden stood at different sides of the room, refusing to make contact with each other, only two of them are sharing their thoughts of each other. Vesta, the bulky girl had a low, yet still feminine voice and Sera's echoed through her helmet. Idris' exact location of where she stood is a mystery for Flame Prince. She is silent.

Vesta cracks her knuckles, and says in a cocky voice, "Well, I guess we all know who will win the Prince." She made no effort in being polite as she continued to crack other parts of her body. The sound of her bones cracking made it hard for Flame Prince to keep a still, emotionless face.

She is the closest to his head.

Aden huffed, "You lack armor, therefore my metal swords will easily pierce through you."

She stood at his right side.

"The Prince did not even wear armor while battling men, so this means I have a chance of taking advantage of you," replies Vesta haughtily._  
_

A small voice makes out the biggest insults thrown to both, "You imbeciles are wrong..." Flame Prince can feel tension grow in the air as he feels the chill of Idris' cold voice. "Strength can mean nothing if you act out _stupidly_ in battle as if you have no brains, and wearing armor just shows how _weak_ and _cowardl_y you are to actually face your enemies."

"Then what _exactly_ do you need?" asks Vesta with gritted teeth.

"Pure evil to power yourself," Flame Prince feels her eyes on him. "That's why...we make the best pair."

Flame Prince wanted to sit up and take her head on this instant. However, he contains himself when Aden changes the subject, "What about that Fionna girl?" She seems to be the one who wants as little conflict between the three girls as possible before the real battle.

"Who?" growls Vesta, still angered by the negative comments.

"The girl Flame Prince claimed to be his bride," explains Idris.

"Wasn't asking you," huffs Vesta.

"She is right," says Aden.

"'Kay."

"Let's make a plan."

Flame Prince feels his heart jump when he feels a hand laid on his head. Why does it seem so cold?

"Take down Fionna first, and then settle the real battle between us," proposes Idris.

Who would know this was the girl who ran out crying earlier?!

...

"You guys are going to get my butt in water!" harshly whispers Flare while leading Fionna and Cake to where Flame Prince laid.

Cake and Fi wore masks again after making another stop at the drama room. "Oh, just a peek at who Fi will be challenging ain't gonna lead us in trouble," says Cake as she adjusts the mask.

"Yeah, and...why is Flame Prince in the infirmary again?" asks Fionna in a worried voice.

"Oh, something about him having a breakdown or something. Whatever he did it sure upset Flame Queen," replies Flare as the trio start walking up a spiral of stairs.

"Breakdown?! Is he all right?"

"Oh yeah, probably just hit his head really hard. I mean _really_ hard; that glass would have hurt!" she looks up at Fi's face cringing. "I mean...he's fine!"

Flare nudges against the door at the far end of the hallway. Fi and Cake exchange looks and run up to slowly open the door just a crack and peek inside. They see a girl with a small figure in body and height with flames burning softly as she stroked Flame Prince's forehead.

"What is she doing?!" Fi growls while clenching her teeth. Cake wraps her arms around her waist.

"You're on your own," says the figure in armor at the way end of the room.

"If she's out, then I'm out," a gruff voice is heard near the door.

"Fine, I'll take down Fionna myself," says the girl who is still petting Flame Prince.

"What?!" exclaims Fi under her breath.

"I wonder...if he had his first kiss yet," the girl talked to herself.

Fionna fumed.

"I would like to...steal one," she whispers and starts to lean down.

Immediately, Fi reacted so fast that Cake wasn't able to hold her down. The young heroine couldn't take it anymore and burst through the door wielding her pink sword and yells, "BACK AWAY FROM HIM!"

"Fionna?" Flame Prince quickly sits up accidentally smashing his forehead against Idris. He didn't take notice for he felt no pain, but she sure did and held her head while growling at Fionna. "Fio-!"

He pauses when the fuming girl grabs his collar and pulls him into a quick and very passionate kiss. He feels the heat of her anger, but isn't too stunned to not respond. However, she pulls away and gets back in her place, pointing her sword at Idris. "He had his first kiss, with me," she says proudly. "And now, I definitely won't lose," she takes a deep breath to calm herself down, "I _won't_ let someone like you have Flame Prince!"

Idris scowls at her and in a flash, jumps over the table to throw a fiery punch on Fionna's cheek. Flame Prince covers Fi and, for his surprise, Aden runs right in front of Idris. The small girl smashes against her armor and falls on the ground, "Save it for the battle..." she looks back at Flame Prince and Fionna, "...I guess it should start now."

...

"I can't wait for the result of the battle," says Flame Queen as she walked side by side with her son. The arena is filled and girls screamed for Flame Prince to turn their way.

He didn't.

They start climbing up steps to their higher view of the arena. It looks like the stage-box they have in the theater. Than again, now that he thinks about this arena is just another theater to her. This is just another way to amuse herself. His mother sat on her seat where she has watched countless people battle to their death. He didn't have a seat. When he came to watch with her he became excited in seeing who would win or if there would be a winner at all. Instead, he used to stand at the edge of the balcony, studying their techniques in handling fire, weaponry and defense. He would learn from the mistakes of the unlucky and how others would triumph victoriously. Now, he feels disgusted he ever felt anticipation for watching people putting themselves in their death beds.

He goes to the edge and can see Aden with her two swords out, Vesta with a huge club on her shoulders, Idris being the only one unarmed and Fionna with one hand gripping on a strap of her bag and another on her sword handle. Cake pops right next to him with Flare on her head, "This will be an easy battle right?"

Flame Prince looks at her and is unable to keep a straight face, "I...I don't know." His worry shows, "If she is able to penetrate Aden's armor I'm sure she'll win, she can probably outsmart Vesta, but Idris..."

"What about that skunk?!" exclaims Cake. "All I know is that she tried to kiss you!"

"She's powerful, but the lucky thing is she can't control her power," explains Flame Prince.

Cake smiles and puts an arm around him, "I'm sure she'll win. She'll do anything for you pretty boy."

"Cake...I don't know if we should con-"

"DON'T say it!" Cake unleashes him, "She did all this for you! She trained her butt off for you! I do _not_ want to hear anything about you breaking things off with her! Understando Flamo Princo?!"

"Cake...I wasn't going to say that," he stares blankly at her.

"Oh...what were you gonna say?"

He answers in a low voice, "We shouldn't continue making relations with my mother, or the kingdom. I don't want Fionna to become my bride...here. I don't want her to be stuck down here for the rest of her li-"

"LET THE BATTLE COMMENCE!" yells Flame Queen in a booming voice. "I only want one winner," she says loud enough for the competitors to hear.

"OH GLOB!" screams Fi as she jumps out of the way as Vesta's spiked club digs into the ground of where she stood. A cloud of dust surrounds her giving a chance to charge at her opponents hidden. However, someone else already thought of that already.

Aden thrusts her the back of her sword handle to jab Fionna's spine, but she heard her and moved to the left. Her right side takes the hit, and boy did it hurt. She retracts her sword with her right hand and wildly slashes against Aden's armor with no success of getting through the metal. She jumps back and finds herself against Vesta's abs. Masculine arms wrapped around her chest and lifted her up a few feet in the air, squeezing the life out of her. Fi thrashes around in her arms and then knocks her head up against Vesta's chin. She watches her fall to the ground and right when she hit the dirt a sword a centimeter away from her cheek appears to her left. She grips her pink sword tightly and turns.

Swords clash against each other with both girls trying to keep their feet lodged in the ground. Fi's luck did not go well. The hit she took earlier made her slant her sword to the left letting Aden get the opportunity to knock it out of her sweaty palms. Her sword flew to the way back of the stadium. The crowd start whooping for the armored warrior.

Fi stumbles back, reaches in her bag and grabs one bag of marshmallow. They have melted into this huge white sticky wad to make one jumbo marshmallow. She hears Aden making a warrior cry and sprinting towards her. Fi rips the bag open and throws the wad right smack onto Aden's helmet. She drops her sword and reaches to take off the marshmallow making her hands get stuck in the mess. She can't see nor move. She is defenseless. Fi watches her struggle and smiles gleefully when Aden finally takes off her helmet with her hands still stuck on it. The heroine runs, jumps and headbutts Aden with all her might. The warrior falls and the crowd's cheering switched sides.

"WHOO!" cheered Cake loudly. She became so excited and happy that she didn't notice she is shaking Flare so intensely.

Flame Prince shoots a proud, cocky grin to his mother who does not respond to him. "SILENCE!" she yells and the crowd falls silent. "It is NOT over yet!"

Idris has been standing outside of the fight. It is obvious she wanted to take on Fionna on girl to girl. She smiles, "I think we both know who will win Flame Prince."

Fi clutches on to her bag strap, "Even if you do win, he won't love you."

The small flame which flickered on Idris' head as well as her body grew three times bigger than her actual size. Fi felt like she is staring at one huge campfire. Her sword is in the way back and all she had are melted marshmallows. What in the world is she to do?!

She can't think.

Fireballs are being thrown in every direction with no precision and accuracy. Idris wants her enemy defeated as quickly as possible. In Fi's luck she stood absolutely still, letting the fireballs hit around her. None of them directly being hurled towards her. Flame Prince grimaces with how bad Idris' fire skill is.

"WHAT THE-?!" Fi finds herself getting sucked up and sees that Idris is spinning so fast that she has turned herself into a twister. Fi clings onto the ground, digging her nails in the dirt, but her legs are already in the air. She sees her sword start being pulled in from the air and into her reach. She lets go of the ground and grabs the handle with her right hand. Now, she has to think fast for she is only a few meters away from Idris' evil clutch.

The marshmallow bag.

It just flew out of her bag and smack into Idris' face. She shrank into normal state to try and yank the wad off her face. Fi lands on the ground with a big "OOF!" and watches her enemy struggle. Idris then tries to burn the marshmallows off, only making the outer layer crisp black, but the inside stickier. Her muffled screams are all Fi and the crowd heard.

"What is this?!" exclaims Flame Queen. "Two of the girls have been defeated with this taffy?!"

"She won," says Flame Prince with a wide smile. Looks like he had nothing to worry about after all.

"So..." Cake begins to walk away, "We'll just be on our wa-"

"NO!" Flame Queen gives a cold stare in Fionna's eyes. "This battle is not over until..." she jabs her finger, "You _slaughter_ your defeated opponents."

"WHAT?!"

[Not the best. Sorry it took long. Wish I can think of things faster^^]


	15. Chapter 14: It's My Choice

"NO!" Fionna digs her sword into the ground, "I won't!"

"Oh? I thought you were the most evil like your servant said?" says Flame Queen with growing impatience.

"I-I-"

"If you aren't, then you are not suitable for my so-"

A fireball hits her cheek only leaving a small scratch. She furiously looks down on the direction it was thrown tracing back to her son who is glaring at her immensely with anger. He grits his teeth, "The match is over..." he keeps his arms up in case of a sudden attack.

Fi slowly wraps her fingers around her sword handle while Cake keeps still, hoping to not make one move that would get her involved with the rising tension between the mother and son. The crowd even hushed and sat still as statues. Flare burped.

Flame Queen packs a huge fireball in a quick second and hurdles it at Flame Prince. He uses his flames to recede himself and transfers to the back of his mother to shoot back a dozen more fireballs which only made dents against her metal dress. If he aims at her head it would only leave scratches like the last one since his flames can be absorbed by hers. Plus, he can't keep throwing his flames for they won't even pierce through her armor. Fighting fire against fire is a method that is not working for him for the time being, especially if one flame is stronger than the other. Distracted in making a plan his mother forms her own fireball and hurls it straight at his chest. It nearly knocks the life out of him as he crashes into the weapon rack.

Cake jumps for aid and Fi sprints towards him, sword in her hand, "Flame Prince!"

He groans, sees his mother approaching and grabs the handle of a spiked club. He blindly begins throwing all the weapons he can grab at the direction of her. All of them seemed to bounce off her armor. She stands right in front of him. Unable to move, he lowers his head in shame.

Noodle arms wrap around Flame Queen and pull her back as Fionna lets out a war cry wielding her sword. However, she winces from the blow she took earlier and does a clumsy hit against the armor. Flame Queen breaks through Cake's hold and starts to shoot fire at Fionna through her fingers. Flame Prince immediately dashes in front and absorbs all of his mother's flames.

All that pulsed through the fire is anger.

"Flame Prince, stop this!" demands his mother.

"_YOU _STOP THIS!" yells Flame Prince at the top of his lungs to overpower her voice.

"If you can't find the perfect bride you can't be a true-"

"RULER?!" he clenches his fists, "I WOULD RATHER NOT BE PRINCE OF THIS PUTRID KINGDOM IF I HAVE TO SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE DOWN HERE! HIDDEN! SECLUDED! ALONE AND CONTROLLED BY THOUGHTS THAT AREN'T EVEN MINE!" He takes a breather, "And...I _hate_ being considered evil..." he takes another deep breath, "Since..." his voice grew shaky, "I'm not."

The crowd in the whole arena gasps, Flare stood with her mouth open, the three girls who were supposedly knocked out on the ground sat up with awe and Flame Queen couldn't say one thing. Someone farted. She shot a flame at him, but still kept her silence.

Flame Prince felt his heart tug. He has deeply disappointed his mother, avoids to even look at her, and faces Fionna. She also didn't know what to say, but took his hand and squeezed it gently. She cracks a tiny smile and he does so as he felt the spark of happiness he felt when he first saw her come back to life. The fact that he has broken his mother's heart did not matter to him anymore...is that evil?

He begins to pull her arm and starts heading to the exit of the arena. All the spectators still stayed silent. Even Cake didn't say anything as she hops to the couple's side. Flare hurries along with them to avoid making a conversation with Flame Queen and the four just keep walking without talking.

...

As the night light touches Cake and Fionna their flame shield wore off, but Fi forgot and kept gripping on Flame Prince's hand. Until she smelt something burning she starts jumping around screaming, "HOT! HOT! HOT!" Freaking out Cake spits on it and Flare tried joining in, but Flame Prince held her back. After Fionna's hand cooled down she wipes it on Cake's fur to get the slobber out. "Did you brush your teeth?!"

"...Maybe."

Flame Prince laughs and continues to carry Flare in his arms, "Hey sweetie, you okay with what just happened back there?" The two girls stare at her, "What?! C'mon! We can't ignore what happened didn't hap!"

"Me burning my hand and Cake spitting on it?"

"No! Ya know what I'm talking 'bout," Flare turns to look up at Flame Prince, "This means you aren't part of the kingdom anymore. You can't return home!"

He stares at her with a blank face, "That might be true, but that place never felt like home."

"But what about your mother?!"

He stays silent.

"And...this means...you can't rule the Fire Kingdom!"

He trails away and says silently, "It's selfish...I know, but I already resigned myself from being a prince, I never even wanted to be one." He really couldn't find his words to argue with Flare. All he knows is what he is doing is selfish in order to be with whom he loves. "It's worth it."

"Aw man, neither you and I can go back there..."

The four continue walking in awkward silence listening to the grass crunch under their feet. Somehow Cake found a rhythm in their walking and starts to beat-box and Fi begins whistling some random tune off her head. She peeks at Flame Prince hoping someone will start singing a verse, but he kept staring down at his feet with his head hanging slightly low. Without any luck of someone breaking out into song Fi makes her whistling quieter. Flame Prince notices and walks closer to her, "Whistle louder."

"Why?"

"I like the music you and Cake make," he replies with a genuine smile.

She blushes and tries to continue whistling, but for the first minute she was too nervous to produce any sound, just air until she got her groove back. Cake's beat-boxing became weaker for she grew weary instead she tells Fi to take over, "I got a song to sing!" [I'm sure everyone knows this, I love this song, and my best friend recently got me a shirt from Cali with Jake cooking them]

"Bacon pancakes makin' bacon pancakes! Put some bacon and I'll put it in a pancake! Bacon pancakes that's what we're gonna make bacon pancakes!" she keeps repeating the verse until her stomach growled, "Aw...I know what I'll have when I get home!"

"Bacon pancakes?"

"Nope! Sausage!"

Fi snorts and looks at Flame Prince. She whistles nonchalantly as she inches closer to his side, "So...you still going to stay in that cave? I-I mean maybe we can find you a-a different place to stay in."

"A different venue?" Flame Prince ponders and stares at the stars. "I don't know, I'm content with the cave. Rock can't burn."

"Yeah...but don't you have trouble sleeping?"

"Not if I think of you before I do."

Immediately, Fi's face turns as bright as an apple with her face furiously burning. "Uhm, uhm! G-Glad you sleep comfortably!" she says in a high squeaky voice and then giggles.

"What were you gonna ask him?" questions Cake with a brow stuck in the air.

"Uhm...nothing! I just thought-well...nothing! It's stupid!"

"You were gonna ask him to stay over!" Flare lets out uncontrollable laughter. "He still fire! He gonna burn the place down!"

Flame Prince gazes at Fionna's pouting face as she puffed her cheeks up and furrows her eyebrows. He thought to himself how cute that face is. "Well, we're here," he says awkwardly as they approach the tree fort. He turns at her and spots the immediate disappointment cloaking her face. He lightly kisses her forehead, "Heh."

"W-What?" the kiss and his chuckle surprised her and made her completely nervous that she pulled on both of her bunny ears.

"I left a small black mark on your forehead."

"EH?" she begins trying to rub it out making him laugh harder. "Aw c'mon! You're starting to tease me like Marshall!"

Cake joins in the laughter, "Is it permanent?! If it is that's hilarious!"

"Haha! That way he doesn't have to give you any hick-" Cake stops her with a harsh glare.

Fi's brain went overload with impure thoughts as her face, already seeming to be lit on fire, turns pure deep red. Flame Prince's flame tremendously flickered as he looks the opposite way from Fionna.

Her speech became really garbled as she struggles to say, "Good night." Instead it sounded more like, "G-Gui-Gwo-Gya NOIT!" She didn't wait for a response for she sprints right back into her tree fort.

"LOOK WHAT YOU DID!" yells Cake. "YOU TAINTED HER MIND! TAINTED!"

"S-Sorry," apologizes Flare. Secretly, she found Fi's reaction pretty funny, "All right Flame Prince let's go."

"Ah, but I didn't say good night to her," he gets ready to open the door, but Cake stops him.

"WHOA WHOA! You can see her tomorrow hot stuff!" she walks back into the tree fort, but before closing the door she turns around to say, "You and Fionna did great today."

...

[I'm sorry guys it's short, but I wanted to put something up after a long time of not updating. Funny thing is I started cramming in the last few days on two major final projects I thought were due dis week...Its actually due next week...So this is what I got so far, sorry for huge delay I hope you enjoy it I'll still cont writing, but there will most likely be huge gaps]


	16. Chapter 15: A Pretty Normal Day

Flame Prince laid flat on his back deep in the den of the flame lions. He decided he would try and sleep the day off because yesterday was probably the most tiring he ever had. He sometimes wished he could take back what he said, but then he doesn't feel absolute regret of saying it, just making his mother sad. Hurt. Pain. Did she even feel those things when he said it? Was she only just surprised? Too stunned to say anything? No, she must be furious. She must be literally burning inside with rage. Hopefully her angry flames won't stretch out towards him or Fionna any longer.

So tiring...he stayed in his cave for two days.

Finally, he turns his head to the left to see if Flare is still asleep. Slowly, he began to creep out of the cave to avoid waking her for he did not want her nagging about what happened yesterday. He lets his head swing back and forth while he stared at his feet avoiding stepping on any sleeping flame cubs. When he did lift his head he came nose to nose with Marshall Lee who jumps back hoping they didn't make skin contact. "WHOA!" he covered his nose and then looked at Flame Prince, "Dude, you look terrible."

"...Thanks," he groans. "Aren't you not a morning person?"

"I don't visit you _every_ morning," replies Marshall while spinning his umbrella. "Fi in there? I checked out her fort, but she ain't there."

"...No."

"Got any plans?"

"...No."

"Let's go to the Candy Kingdom, she might be there with Gumball," he offers as he starts heading towards the kingdom's direction.

"Why would she be with...him?" even though he had no hard feelings over Gumball he still felt the burning sensation inside whenever he thought of those two together. Yet...she assured him that night out on the balcony that they were just close friends.

"What you say bro? I wasn't listening," asks Marshall as he swoops down by Flame Prince.

"Uhm...how close are Fionna and Gumball?" he feels embarrassed just asking about them.

Marshall looks the other way to hide his mischievous smile and replies, "Oh...didn't Fi tell you? Gumball is sort of her...ex."

"Ex?"

"Ex-boyfriend, it means she dated him and then they broke up," explains the vampire. "Oh, man, she was head over heels for him before."

"...Before," mutters Flame Prince as his eyebrows furrowed. This means...she loved him first. He had her first. Flame Prince's lips shuddered as he asked, "Did...they kiss?"

This time the vampire hesitated whether to answer his question or not. He didn't really know the details since Fi refused telling him anything that would give him a reason to tease her. "Uh...sure, yeah they did."

"...Oh," is the prince's response. "So...why would she still visit him?" He began taking smaller steps for he is starting to want to head back to the cave.

"Sometimes she helps Gumwad with experiments like we do sometimes. It's no biggie man I'm just pulling your leg," assures Marshall.

He can feel it.

Jealousy.

"Uhm...Marshall, I'll come by again later...I er...forgot my aluminum boots," he can feel his stomach twist uneasily as he turns back.

"Huh? Uh...'kay dude."

Flame Prince didn't want to go back to the cave, he wanted to shoot fireballs at something to get envy out of his mind and heart. It was already twisting his heart as if it was piercing him with needles. He couldn't get the thought of Gumball and Fionna kissing. Her face blushing at Gumball and not him. Her embarrassed actions towards Gumball and not him. Knowing that he wasn't her first love hurt him. She is his first love...

What hurt the most is knowing that her lips have already been touched by those that are not his.

It hurt.

Worse, it made him angry.

He is tempted to shoot down everything in his path, but controls it. The hardest part is keeping his emotions in tact while walking for if he lets them burst out he would leave a fiery path. He puts his hand on a tree accidentally setting it on fire. It hit him that he forgot his aluminum gloves back in the Fire Kingdom. The fire climbed to the leaves and began spreading to the other tree tops. He began a forest fire. Cursing silently under his breath he tries killing it with a stronger fire bursting from his hands. He twitches when he hears a piercing scream behind him.

"THE MONSTER!" he turns and sees a goblin.

Flame Prince pauses and reaches out a hand, "Wait I-!"

The goblin screams again, runs, trips and continues to sprint away from Flame Prince. He suddenly realizes that is one of the goblins he terrorized when he burned down their village. He looks at the burning trees and then the direction where the goblin ran. He grits his teeth and continues to kill the weak fire which continued spreading from tree to tree. No matter how strong his fire is he couldn't control the sparks that flew and lit other trees. Frustrated he transforms into his fiery demonic looking form and starts shooting out flames and puts out all the fire he set off. He caught himself laughing maniacal and evilly, so he stops right when the fire was out and returns to normal. He sees the trees that have already turned to soot and the burnt bark and leaves.

"Least...the fire is out." He rubs his head knowing the sensation he felt earlier is the same as when he was burning down the village.

"THERE HE IS!" the familiar goblin voice.

"WHERE?!"

"WHERE IS THE MONSTER WHO BURNED DOWN OUR VILLAGE?!"

Voices accompanying him. Growing closer. He uses his heat sense and felt the warmth of more than a hundred villagers. He remembers how he left them crying, hurt, in pain, burnt, coughing, sick and scarred. He remembers how evil he was. He is a monster carved in their hearts. He prepares to run, but hears their cries and starts sprinting to their direction and gets hit with a nostalgic chill. Lowering his arm he is surprised to see all the villagers frozen in gigantic ice. Immediately, he reaches out to melt the ice, but someone grabs him. It's cold.

"Ice Q-Queen," he stutters from the freezing touch.

"Hey hottie, guess it's just me and you now," she chimes happily. Flame Prince snatches his hand out of hers and gets ready to lay it on an ice block trapping the goblin who ran away from him. He pauses as she says, "Flame Prince, you _really_ want to save them? When you chip them out of there they will come after you."

"They'll die if I don't."

"You'll die if you do."

He stares at the goblin's frozen frightened face which still twitched at the sight of Flame Prince. He furrows his eyebrows.

"C'mon, let's go before tomboy gets here," offers Ice Queen with her hand out.

He reaches out to her...and releases a huge fireball that blasted her out of his sight. He doesn't know where he aimed, he doesn't care, as long as she's as far from his as possible.

"Who's the monster now?" he asks himself while staring down at the goblin who is letting out fearful muffled sobs through the ice.

The ice hurt. It really hurt badly on his hand as he laid it on top of the ice. He emits small bursts of heat to make the ice start melting. The goblin gasped for air and continued to scream. He stops noticing Flame Prince holding his hand which turned grey. "W-Why?" he asks.

Flame Prince responds, "So I can at least feel the pain I caused you guys." He grunts and his hand bursts into flames, "Plus...it's where I met her."

...

"AND THAT IS HOW YOU MAKE THE PERFECT CHERRY DOUGHNUT!" exclaims Gumball as he held out the pastry he's been working on for two straight days. Marshall Lee slurps up the red of the cream on the doughnut. Gumball stares at his grey creation, slowly puts it on the table, takes off his glasses, sighs and gets ready to toss a glass plate.

"BRING IT ON PINKIE!" yells Marshall.

Fionna laughs as Cake gulped down the rest of the doughnut and Marshall chases after Gumball. "Oh, man! That's a good doughnut! Mm mm mm!" exclaims Cake. Fi snorts, but everyone pauses as they hear a scream come closer and closer.

_BAM_

Ice Queen flew through the window, crashed against the wall and laid there looking lost. Her hair is slightly burnt as well as her dress and Cake quickly grabs her crown off her head to avoid the risk of ice getting shot at them. She placed it on her head as Fi asks with her sword drawn out, "What do you want Ice Queen?!"

The powerless queen ignores her question and slurs, "Your...boyfriend likes playing hard to get. Geez! I save him and he blasts me to...out there!"

"Flame Prince? What you do to him Ice Queen? Tell me or Cake will...ice you!"

"WAZZAM!" threatens Cake with her arms out.

"Okay! Okay! Geez! I froze these guys chasing after him and he just pushed me away! I saved him and he does that?! What a jerk boyfriend you have! Then again...playing hard to get is hot," she lunges at Cake, grabs her crown and before jumping out the window blows a kiss at Gumball. "I'll come for you when I'm in the mood sweetheart."

"Ugh, gross," Cake fake barfs as Fi runs at the edge of the castle to see where Ice Queen is heading.

"Marshall, I thought you said he was just getting his boots."

"Maybe he wanted to fool 'round with Ice Queen," teases Marshall.

Fi responds by punching his arm hard, "Quit it! There are people frozen!"

"Chill, chill, you know Flame Prince, since he's all good and mushy like you he'll probably thaw them out. Hell, he probably is already done by now," assures Marshall.

"I think we can leave this in Flame Prince's hands," says Cake as she relaxes by rolling on the floor.

"Y-You sure? You're just saying that 'cause your lazy..."

"If he has great control in his powers I'm sure he's fine Fionna," says Gumball. He stares at the hole Ice Queen left, "...I need to move my lab."

"Well...okay," Fi turns around and gasps when she almost smacks into Flame Prince. "What the hay?! Flame Prince!" she jumps up to tackle him down.

When she jumped everything seemed to go into slow motion. Flame Prince is leaning back, Cake stretching her arms to grab Fi's waist, Gumball reaching out to grab her arm, Marshall Lee adjusting his umbrella and Peppermint Waitress waving from outside the hole. Gumball was able to grab Fionna first and accidentally pulled her arm too hard she ends up falling on top of his chest. Cake had to clamp her paw over her mouth to let out an "OOH!" Marshall gets ready to laugh, but Cake uses her other paw to shut him up. Fionna intensely blushes as she struggles to push herself off Gumball who is quite dazed of what happened since he hit his head on the floor.

"S-SORRY FLAME PRINCE IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" yells Fionna while violently waving her arms.

"Oh, no, it's fine," he says with a smile.

"A-Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"FP...you're burning the floor..." mentions Marshall.

"WHERE YOUR BOOTS?!" asks Cake.

"Well, I really have forgotten the matter of getting my boots after releasing goblin villagers from their frozen chambers and went straight inside the castle. I saw that if I had control over negative emotions I can easily walk on the floor without burning it."

"Oh! You're feeling negative stuff 'cause you saw all that junk!" exclaims Cake and the flames surrounding Flame Prince's feet increased.

"STOP TALKING CAKE!" yells Fionna. "Flame Prince," she touches his hands unconsciously and realizes how cold they were as well as doused. Immediately, the flames dispersed and replaced with ashes as she squeezes his freezing hands and holds them with hers to transfer warmth. Suddenly, they were bright and orange again, "You're hands are hot again!" she exclaims happily. "THEY'RE HOT AGAIN!"

"LET GO FOOL!" yells Cake as Flame Prince releases her hands. "LEMME SPIT ON THEM!"

"I CAN SPIT ON THEM MYSELF!"

"ALLOW ME!"

"NO CAKE IT'S FINE!" Fi waves her hands rapidly in the air away from Cake who is desperately aiming her spit at her. Marshall couldn't stop laughing as Gumball finally stood up.

While everyone is distracted he nonchalantly walks over to Flame Prince. The stubborn prince refused to meet his "enemy" in the eye, but didn't move away when Gumball approached him. "Sorry, about what happened earlier," apologizes Gumball. "I didn't mean for her to-"

"It's fine," interrupts Flame Prince. "Uhm...choose your words carefully or your floor will burn again."

"Oh! Uh-"

"Did you and Fionna date?" he asks straight out.

"What?!"

"Marshall Lee told me you two used to date and that you were her...'ex-boyfriend.'"

"What?!" Gumball quickly shoots a glare at Marshall. The vampire didn't notice, he is still laughing at Fi's burnt hands. "No! No! We were _not_ dating! Just friends! Always friends."

"But...she loved you first. You must be really lucky."

Gumball sighs, "And she loves you _now. _So the lucky is really you Flame Prince."

Flame Prince's face heats up and floor began to burn once more. "Gumwad did you make him angry again?!" exclaims Marshall. "Dude listen to my voice and it will calm you down."

Cake pushes him away, "No! Give him Fi and he'll calm down!" She pushes Fi to stand right in front of Flame Prince, "Give him a kiss on the cheek or something!"

"W-What?! Cake!"

Flame Prince stares down at Fionna's face and continued thinking of what Gumball told him. He is lucky. She loves him. The heat on his cheeks matched the same temperature as the flames among his feet.

Outside the castle the candy people can already see flames engulfing one part of the building and different people yelling.

"GET FIONNA AWAY! GET FIONNA AWAY!"

"MY LAB!"

"FLAME PRINCE WHAT'S WRONG?!"

The only sound that stuck out from the yelling is someone laughing his head off.


	17. Chapter 16: Pecs and Adventure

"That's the last of the flames!" exclaims Gumball as he stomps out the small flickering fire.

Flame Prince flinches since he felt every stomp and water poured on his flames. Silently, he mutters, "Ow..."

Marshall Lee stops laughing when he sees the fire has all went out, "Whoo! That was a good laugh!"

"OH MY GLOB!" yells Fionna while pointing at his head.

"What?" says an annoyed Marshall as Cake pats the side of where fire has eaten half of his hair.

"It's so...scratchy."

"Ha!" laughs Gumball. "Finally, something bad happens to you."

The vampire glares at him, thinks for a while, and jokingly flips his hair with a huge grin on his face, "So what? Gives me that rock star look ya know."

"So you purposely wanted your hair on fire?" asks Fionna.

"OH OH! Maybe you wanted a Mohawk like Flame Prince!" yells Cake while clapping her paws.

Flame Prince and Marshall Lee looked at each other for two seconds, turned to Cake and said, "No."

Everyone notices the sky turned to black since Flame Prince became the only glowing being in the darkness. "Ha! All we need to do is put you in a la-"

Fionna shuts Marshall Lee's mouth with her fist as Flame Prince smiles awkwardly at her. "I guess it's time to go ho-" thunder interrupts him as rain began to pour down heavily against the burned ceiling which began to fall apart. Everyone ran to the hallway as the wet, burnt wood crashed down on the cindered floor. Fi sighs as she feels warm close to Flame Prince she opens her eyes and realizes everyone surrounded him.

"H-Hey!" she exclaims as she madly blushes.

"Fi just share him..." groans Marshall as he lifts his hands to warm them from the cold wind coming in from the hole.

"N-No!" she refuses.

"Anyway he can't go home," says Cake. "It's P-O-U-RING!"

"Hmm...Marshall can you share you-"

"NOPE!"

Fi glares at him and puffs her cheeks up furiously. She then looks at Cake...

...

"Cake why don't you wanna morph into a giant so we can go under your belly?!" exclaims an annoyed Fionna as she is scrunches up in the middle of Marshall and Flame Prince.

Cake shrunk and sat on Fi's shoulder, "Because I'll get sick! And that ain't good!"

"You do tier 15?" smirks Marshall.

In response Cake slaps him, "SHH!"

"What's tier 15?" asks Flame Prince and Fionna.

Marshall starts, "It's-"

He gets smacked in the face as Cake intercepts, "DIDN'T I TELL YOU NOT TO ASK ABOUT TIER 15?!"

"But I don't-"

"DO NOT DO TIER 15!"

"But Cake, I don't know what it is," explains Fi. "So...how would I know what I'm not supposed to do with Flame Prince?"

"J-Just...no," she sneaks a glare at Flame Prince who had a confused look on his face and whispers, "Don't...do...it."

After Cake slowly disappeared in Fionna's hat the Prince turns to her with a "What was that?" look. She shrugs with a smile and begins to beat box.

Marshall Lee nods to the beat. Flame Prince sees this and tries copying his movement. Fi loses beat when she notices Flame Prince copying Marshall and lets out a "PFFT!" but continues to beat box. Flame Prince's cheeks turn red and Marshall lets out howl of laughter. After clearing his throat he gets ready to rap, "Ahem. _Mother knows best, oh, how those words are such a lie. They want us to follow the rules of their make up society. Next thing you know they do something absurd such as eating your fries, man that's a tu-_"

Cake pops out of Fionna's hat, "Oh my Glob Marshall you are still hung over that?!"

"SHE ATE MY FRIES!"

Everyone stops in front of the tree fort and the vampire pushes Fi to the front of the door so he can have more space under the umbrella. Fi pouts as Marshall teases, "Aw, you just sad you don't get to walk Flame Prince home."

"S-Shut up!" yells Fi with her blushing cheeks and furrowed eyebrows.

"C'mon," chimes Marshall, "Give him a little kiss before you leave." He starts making kiss noises towards Flame Prince. Fi grabs his umbrella and punches him out into the rain.

"You've been real quiet for a while," she comments as Flame Prince focuses her eyes from Marshall's twitching body to her. "You okay?"

"Of course, the song just sort of made me think..." he looks away, uncomfortable of talking about his mother. Suddenly, straight out he says bluntly without thinking, "Want to go on a date tomorrow?" He covered his mouth with embarrassment and a red face.

He was so loud he startled Fi who nearly dropped the umbrella and laughs not realizing his question. "Your face turned red when you...asked me..." her voice begins shaking, "D-Date?" She grips the umbrella handle hard while her face turns from pink to deep red and lowers her head. "Uh...uh! OF COURSE! LOVE TO!"

Flame Prince lets out a beaming smile, "Okay. I'll pick you up."

"O-Okay..." says Fi shyly as she passes the umbrella to Marshall. "Good night!"

When the door shut Marshall flicks his head to Flame Prince, "Have you guys ever gone on a date?"

The absentminded Prince stares off in a distance for a while and asks, "Does the ball count?"

"No," quickly answers Marshall. "Okay, man, while we're walking I'm going to give you a few tips on what to do on dates."

"Oh...okay? What do I do?"

"Act really rebellious. Do what _you_ want to do, chicks dig that."

"Fionna 'digs' that?" he finds that hard to believe, but who has more knowledge about his girlfriend between them?

"Oh right...Fi isn't really a chick."

"And you're always rebellious Marshall."

"Yeah, so?"

"She didn't go to you."

Silence passes both. "Oh quit acting high and mighty you got her," grunts the irritated vampire. "Where are you even thinking of taking her?"

"I don't know."

"Okay look," they pause in front of his cave, "This is probably the most true thing I've said today, but Fi loves adventure. Give her an adventure. She'll love that!"

"Oh, so battling evil things?"

"Yup."

"Burning them to their grave?"

"...No."

"Oh, then I should avoid that?"

"Yes."

"Oh," Flame Prince steps in his cave. "Is that it?"

"That is all I will give you, since you pretty much like flaunting the fact you have her."

"Yeah, she's mine," responds Flame Prince bluntly.

Marshall Lee rolls his eyes, "Whatever man, sleep it off tonight. See ya whenever Princey-poo!" The vampire disappears into the darkness of the night as Flame Prince turns around and suddenly trips over a large object.

"Huh...? LSP?"

The purple cloud rubs his head while complaining of his aches and cramps. "Yeah, it was raining and Jennifer wouldn't leave me alone. So I'll crash here for tonight! Cool with you?" Flame Prince just looks at him with a confused look, "Cool. So! I heard you and Marshall talking about Fionna. Oh yeah, she and I are close buds."

"So, can you give me tips on how to act on a date?"

"Ch, yeah, that's what I do best. Give...advice about attracting the ladies. Especially since they can't resist these lumps," he starts pumping his "muscles" while saying "Oh yeah, look at these pecs." Flame Prince gets ready to walk to the end of the cave, but LSP pops up in front of him, "W-WAIT! I'll give you awesome tips on making Fionna in love with you!"

"She...already is."

"Oh. Then just show off your pecs to keep her eyes on you at all times. I mean, you're good looking, and even though your pecs aren't as big as mine, it's probably what caught her attention."

"Uh...huh."

"I can show you how to."

"No thanks."

"All right then, I'm going to sleep. Where do I crash?"

"Just stay by the entrance."

"But it's cold!" complains LSP.

Flame Prince is already annoyed and shoots flames at a pile of wood the cubs probably brought in from their play time. "There."

"Thanks man! You're so cool! I mean hot! Hehe...I'm so funny."

The Prince walks further into the cave where he can't hear LSP muttering comments about himself. He sits down and puts together the information he received today about dates. "Pecs...and adventure is what I need?"


	18. Chapter 17: If Only

[Hey guys I finally have my laptop fixed, but they switched hard drives so I don't have my old files of the chapters, but its fine. I'm sorry it took so long to make this chapter, but I'm off island vacationing and for some reason I can't connect to wireless. Yeah, gotta survive on cable….Anyways back on the story, thanks for the reviews and sticking to the story(:]

Gumball kept making his usual "Hmm" sounds while he scribbled numbers and formulas on his chalk board in order to solve his new challenge: forming a machine that will automatically show the memories of an individual and display it on a TV screen or something like that. He got the idea whenever Cinnamon Bun kept knocking on his lab door to ask about something, but ends up muttering random things until Gumball asks with annoyance, "What do you want?!" The answer was always, "I forgot."

"Well, I can fix that!" announces PG to himself as he continues tinkering on the board. He is still concentrating on his math even after the door swings open, "Cinnamon Bun I'm busy!"

"Oh, no, it's Flame Prince."

"Oh, Flame Prince," he still kept his eyes on the board, "What are you doing here?"

As always the blunt Prince answers, "I'm going on a date with Fionna."

"What does that have to do with me?" asks Gumball flatly sensing as if FP just came to brag to him.

"Do you have a map of dangerous…adventurous places?"

"Oh, sure, I'll go ge- why aren't you wearing a shirt?" he finally turned around to see Flame Prince shirtless.

"Uhm…isn't this what girls want on dates? 'Pecs?'" he quotes LSP.

PG puts a hand on his forehead wondering if he should correct Flame Prince's knowledge. He didn't think he was this gullible to take advice from LSP, but it just shows how much he wants to please Fionna. Gumball finally lets out a sudden, small burst of laughter, clears his throat and looks for his map. "Okay, ahem, one, don't take advice from LSP."

"Why?"

"Do you even see any girls hang out with him? Ah, anyways," he peers into another corner where papers laid around his desk. He shuffles through them, "On a date the boy must act like a gentlemen. Be himself around the girl, but also importantly-" He pauses to put scrolls in front of him, "He must think of what his mistress wants."

"I see…so, I can't be shirtless?"

"…you can?" awkwardly answers Gumball and tucks a scroll under his arm. "I have to get back to work so I'll have Lord Monochrome take the map to the tree fort."

"Okay, thank you," Flame Prince gets ready to make a formal leave.

"Oh, and Flame Prince?"

"Yeah?"

"I think you better put on a shirt. Fionna would probably be distracted…"

…

Fi keeps turning 360 degrees to view every part of her body in front of the mirror. She pats her skirt wondering if it is too short and fixing her hat thinking it always got crooked in a way. Shyly, she stares at herself in the mirror wondering if she is okay. All of a sudden, Cake sprints under her legs causing her to fall on her butt. "Ow, what the hey Cake?!"

"It's Lord Monochrome!" chimes Cake happily.

"Hey, why's your boyfriend here?" asks Fi as she rubs her butt and follows Cake outside to meet him. The black horse held a paper scroll in his mouth and hands it over to Fionna, "What's this?"

He starts tapping his foot in a fast pace as she waits for Cake to give her a translation. "It's your date avenue with Flame Prince."

"Huh?"

Lord Monochrome continues, "FP asked for a map of an adventure?! Oh! OPEN IT! OPEN IT! I WANNA SEE!"

Excited and curious, Fi quickly unrolls the scroll. She and Cake gasp, "WHOA! It's a map that leads to one of the rumored hidden blades that was once used by _Bea_!" she sings the name. (a.k.a. "Billy")

"OH MAN! It's the one that he used to slaughter that dragon!"

"That bear!"

"That wizard!"

"Everything…" says Fi in awe as she stares at the piece of paper with big hungering eyes. "Hey, wait where's Flame Prince?"

Lord Monochrome answer confuses the girls, "He went to put on a…shirt?"

They see a trail of fire zoom across the fields and head right to them. Through the flames the Prince appears with a shirt on and a grin on his face. "Ready to go?"

Immediately, Fi blushes and clutches the map tightly, "Ye-Yeah!"

Cake turns her around to inspect her, "Got your sword?"

"Always."

"Got some snacks?"

"Snacks?"

Cake shoves a picnic basket in Fionna's arms, "Got your aluminum foil?"

"Huh?"

A pack of aluminum foil is forced in her backpack, "Got your game face?"

"YEAH!"

"WHAT TIME IS IT?!"

"ADVENTURE TIME!" yells Fionna to the sky. Both she and Cake are panting after shouting from the top of their lungs. "Okay, I'm ready."

…

"The first part seems easy, I mean we have to walk for a while over some grassy hills before getting to the real fun," says Fionna as she studied the map, Flame Prince, and then the map again. She stuffs it in her bag and takes out the picnic basket. "Where do you want to eat?"

Flame Prince looks around. They unconsciously walked up on the highest hill which held the view of a seemingly endless field of grass. The weather is on their side as a breeze of wind softly tickles their cheeks and the right amount of sunlight gives them the warmth they need to keep from shivering. "Here's fine."

Fi crosses her legs, makes sure her underwear isn't showing, places the basket down and opens it. Flame Prince crosses his legs as well while she lays out the food Cake packed them. "Snacks she said," groans Fionna as she takes out sausage, sandwiches, tea in a thermos, steak and the only thing considered as snacks, cookies. Fi sticks her fork on a sausage, gets ready to dig in but sees that it isn't even cooked. In her surprise she finds thin sticks in the bottom of the basket, takes them out, sticks a sausage on and roasts them in Flame Prince's hair.

She giggles thinking not much people would even do this. Not much people date fire elements. She eagerly takes a bite out of a sausage first and then stretches her arm out for Flame Prince. He leans in to take his share, but Fionna couldn't help but move the sausage away. He stares at her with confusion as she stares at him with puffed up cheeks, hiding her smile. When he tried again she moved it away again. He gets it now.

Jokingly, he stands up to leave, "Okay, bye."

"No!" cries out Fionna as she holds out the sausage, "Here."

He finally is allowed to take a bite. After swallowing his piece he apologizes, "I'm sorry you have to feed me."

"Oh, it's okay, I like feeding you," Fi puts the last three sausages on the stick as Flame Prince blushes to himself. She kneels in front of him, and leans forward to put the sausages in his fire. He realizes how close she is to him.

"Aren't you hot? You're leaning rather close…"

"No, I'm fine."

He wishes he can grab her waist and pull her on top of him. Kiss her. Hold her close. Tightly. Lay on her lap. He can't. He hates how limited he is to this.

"If only I can kiss you right now…" he unknowingly mutters. Fi hears him, bites her lip with a red face, looks down at him and stares at his lips.

"M-Me too…"

She hates how limited they are too.

After finishing the sausages they move on to the steak and sandwiches. Cake packed so many sandwiches Fi stacked them into a tower and stuck a toothpick on the top. Flame Prince lit a flame on the tip. They each had one sandwich and saved the rest for later. The steak is also spared, so they munch on the cookies. Flame Prince had didn't realize she fed him more cookies than her. He developed such a sweet tooth. Right when he felt full he plopped on his back in front of where Fi knelt while using his hands as a pillow. They both gaze into each other's' eyes.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey."

It's almost like the first time they met.

As she packed the picnic basket in her bag she notices the aluminum foil. She spreads a piece out and places it on top of Flame Prince's chest. Flame Prince feels the weight of her head and hears the crinkle of the foil as she lies down. He wants to ask if she is uncomfortable but does not want to disturb the peace they are receiving.

It is so tempting to fall asleep.

"Fi," she lifts her head up, "Let's go before we fall asleep."

…

The couple approaches a lake with skulls littering the bottom that stared at them with gaping mouths and empty eyes. Fi takes the first step and flat stones rise to the surface leading a path to the middle of the lake. She looks back at Flame Prince who has an uneasy look since where the path leads to is unknown plus he would be surrounded by his main enemy, water.

"I'll go check it out."

Before he can oblige Fionna is already hopping from step to step to the end. He sees the water start to bubble and the skulls began releasing a shrill scream. He held his ears, but kept his eyes open to focus on Fi. She reached the middle of the lake, but struggled keeping herself on the rock as the land water began to shake beneath her. He gasps and stretches an arm out when she falls forward into the bubbling water. Putting his fear aside he starts running on the stones to the center and looks down, frantically searching for her.

The skulls' screaming grew louder.

"Fionna!" he yells and searches. "Fionna!"

[Sorry it took long i finally got home]


	19. Chapter 18: Grasping On

Fionna can hear his muffled cries from above which gives her strength to make an effort on opening her eyes. It isn't the ocean so it doesn't hurt, but everything is still blurry. She looks up and sees the bottom of the rocks, she then looks down and can see the skulls with their mouths open and hollow eye sockets. Why are they screaming?!

Unless…they are calling something or someone.

AIR.

Fi starts kicking her feet to take a sweet gulp of air, but something cold grabs her leg. She can feel the tips of claws sharply dig into her skin making her let out her last breath of air. Quickly, she lost consciousness and feeling, letting her body be dragged away by this unknown being.

Up above Fi's air bubble floated to the top and popped in front of Flame Prince's face. He bites his lip hard and attempts trying to look through the water once more. He can't see her and the skulls' screams are just annoying him already. He stands up, closes his eyes and takes a very deep breath. He shakily exhales without opening his eyes and fills his head with Fionna.

Quickly he mutters, "Power of love keep me alive," and jumps in the lake.

Every part of his body felt like it is being stung by a thousand bees and pierced by needles. It was the pain that made him open his eyes as soon as he was surrounded by water. The skulls' screams are muffled through the water, now he can concentrate more easily. He turns his body 360 degrees to spot any sort of clue where Fionna is. He immediately spots a hole about 10 feet in diameter and swims towards it. Hopefully, at the end there is air and her.

The tunnel is dark and the further he went inside the quieter it became. So quiet he can hear his heart thumping loudly from swimming and pain. About a few meters later he finally pops his head out of the water, breathes, and rushes to the shore. He can already tell he is in a cave, but can't tell what is around him for he is in his doused state and near to losing consciousness. His body feels heavy as he falls forward, unable to lift himself up.

_No, I can't faint now! No…I'm near past fainting…_

"I can't die…" he grunts, trying to spark a flame within his hands. The flame on his head drooped over his eyes, he attempts to dry it and try making a fireball again. No luck. If he faints he'll die.

Slowly, Flame Prince gets up and starts using the rocky walls for support and walks forward. Hopefully, he can dry himself by the time he finds Fionna. His feet drag across the flat ground which is coated with black causing him to accidentally kick a small rock. It makes a small echo throughout the cave making him pause. He's been looking down the whole time that when he looks up only then did he notice a small light peeking from a corner. He moves a little bit faster to reach that light, leans on the wall and peeks behind the corner.

Through blurred vision he can see the shape of Fionna's body and the color of her clothes lying on the ground. In front of her stood a large figure about nine feet high that smelled like fish. He can't make out what the creature looks like, whether it held weapons or even needed them. If he rushed out to Fionna in his condition they will both die under the hands of this thing?

Helpless. He feels helpless.

So far the creature just hovered over Fi; it even poked her to check if she is still knocked out. He watches it stomp inside another cave and heard a clang of metals. It brought back a pile of wood and a pot which he hears the sloshing of water coming from. Oh, Glob, he's going to eat her!

He pauses when he hears flint rub against each other causing a spark. It's actually a good thing this monster decided to not eat Fionna raw. He hears fire start licking the wood and crackling, calling for him. He turns to where Fi was lying and saw that she is gone and that the creature is carrying her to the pot!

With a gulp Flame Prince steps out revealing himself. The fire is just two meters away from him as the monster is three. It roars at him and drops Fionna sloppily on the ground. Flame Prince clenches his teeth and tries to sprint towards the fire. The creature stood there looking confused while the Prince carries his body over right on top of the fire. The warmth is incredible and he no longer felt heavy. He takes a piece of wood that had a flame burning on the top, turned for the creature to see, bit where the flame burned and swallowed it.

"I'll be taking my girlfriend now," he says with a scowl. "Now, I can't let you off easy since you tried to eat her," with that said he threw a fireball, but the creature slithered another direction closer to Flame Prince.

Now he can see what the monster looks like: head of a crocodile with a mouth filled with thousands of two centimeter long sharp teeth, muscular arms that ended with webbed hands as well as huge claws and a long tail that could be used to knock him down in an instant. It's body is covered in scales and a nasty odor.

Once more it roars and charges to him with a swing of it's tail. Flame Prince puts his arms up for defense, but it still knocked him against the wall leaving an indent. He begins to throw multiple fireballs at the creature which released a ton of smoke as they hit it. Through the smoke it pounced at him with little wounds and picked up the pot of boiling water to chuck it at the Prince. Immediately, Flame Prince spits fire to convert the liquid into steam.

They stand a few feet away and stared into each other's eyes with hate and fury. Their silence is broken when a voice from behind the creature yells out, "I'M GONNA MAKE YOU INTO SASHIMI!" Fionna had woken up just now, saw the creature hovering over her boyfriend, got out her sword and jumped on the creature's back. It tries to throw her off, but had no effort. Fi clung onto it's fin for the scales made him slippery.

"Actually, I prefer my fish burnt," Flame Prince throws fireballs at the creature's chest as Fionna tries slicing and dicing with her sword at the back. The creature finally falls forward, twitching as Fi stands triumphant on it's back and holds up her sword, "I…am…not food!"


	20. Chapter 19: What If

The monster lay unconscious at their feet and after staring at it for a while Flame Prince lifts up a hand with a flame prepared and asked, "Can we burn him?"

"N-No, he might be useful for finding the sword! Plus…the map was ruined," she held out the drenched guide Gumball gave them.

"But…we knocked him out."

"Then let's wake him up again!" Fi softly pokes the scaly cheek of the creature. It lets out a weak grunt so she begins hitting his cheek repeatedly with the handle of her sword.

"AH! WHAT THE HELL'S WRONG WITH YOU?! THIS IS THE PART WHEN YOU LEAVE!" screeches the monster as he suddenly stands up while holding his bruised cheek. "What d'ya want?!" he shoots a pissed glare at Fionna, then Flame Prince who gave him a fiery stare. He goes back to glaring at Fionna.

Fi wields her sword to emphasize her excitement, instead it made the creature cower but she didn't care. "We're looking for the sword of Bea!"

"Psh, that piece of junk? I could use it as a toothpick," he brags while showing off his large set of sharp teeth.

"HEY! THAT'S NO WAY TO TREAT THE ULTIMATE AWESWOMEST NUMBER ONE ADVENTURER'S SWORD!"

"Even if I knew where it is I wouldn't tell a bratty teenage girl like you, no matter how hot you are," scoffs the creature as he lay back on the ground and shuts his eyes.

He feels a burning sensation on his nose, struggles to get up, but is pinned down by the snout under Flame Prince's boot. The Prince bent down to see eye to eye with the creature, "She asked nicely, but now it's my turn to persuade you…and I'm not a nice guy." Flames burst from his red eyes, "So, talking is not my way of…negotiating." The creature squirms as he can feel the heat from Flame Prince's boot rise, "Wanna talk?"

The creature lets out a muffling approval and Flame Prince lifts up his foot. Fi can see his boot left a black imprint on the snout. "Geez…" he rubs his snout and walks through Fi and Flame Prince to the other side of the cave. He knocks on the rock wall which lets out a hollow side, "If you can break through here it will lead you straight to the sword…." He isn't happy he was threatened by a kid so he isn't willing to break down the wall for them.

Without warning, Flame Prince throws a fireball straight at the wall. The creature jumps out of the way as rocks and soil fly towards his face. "Ooh!" Fi runs ahead, "Thanks monster dude! C'mon Flame Prince it's dark!"

Flame Prince follows in after her after shooting a glance at the pouting creature. The creature watches the couple disappear deeper into the tunnel. "Damn…and I was so hungry too," he turns and is over taken by a dark and evil force. He tries to scream, but he couldn't, he can't see anymore, he isn't control anymore and now…it's not him anymore.

"It's about time I can take down Fionna the human," mutters the Lich in her new body.

…

"Thanks," shyly mutters Fionna when Flame Prince catches up with her. "But did you actually jump in the water?!"

"H-How else would I get to see you again," Flame Prince looks straight ahead with red cheeks. "I was really worried…"

Fi turns from his face to the end of the tunnel where she can see something gleaming under light that trickled from above. "THE SWORD!" she cheered and sprints towards it.

Flame Prince takes one step forward but is caught by something scaly he flips his head around to see what it is yet is pulled into the darkness of the tunnel. Fi's excitement overwhelmed her to check on Flame Prince as she runs down the narrow path leading to the sword. She didn't even look down to see the sword stood on a pillar surrounded by a seemingly endless fall.

With all her might she pulls out the sword and swings it around with giddy laughter. The sword's handle had a skull with a tiny red gem in the middle of the forehead. The blade shone in the tiny light and reflects Fionna's drooling mouth. "Flame Prince, look! I got the-! Flame Prince?" she now notices he is not behind her or anywhere. After strapping the sword onto her back she runs to the tunnel and sees his flame getting dimmer. Immediately, she jogs after the light and is back in the place they defeated the monster. Only he isn't on the ground anymore. "FLAME PRINCE!" she cries out and hears water splashing.

It is dark where the splashing is coming from so she grabs a piece of burning wood from under the cauldron. She growls thinking they should have at least tied up the monster and sprints again. She is huffing from the jogging, sprinting and the panic sweeping over her face. She sweated profusely, especially since she is carrying a big sword on her back. "UNHAND HIM YOU-" she gasps and drops the torch as it shows the monster holding Flame Prince's arms with one hand and using the other to dip his head in the water.

Even though he is aware of Fionna's presence he decides to distress her more and pushes Flame Prince's head deeper in the water. He lifts him up just for her to hear him cough up water and then get shoved back down.

Tears stung her eyes as anger, rage and anguish gives her the strength to move and unstrap the sword. "LET HIM GO!" she screams and slashes the back of the creature. It squeals and let's go of Flame Prince's head. Fi makes another go at the head and cuts at the neck, beheading the creature. She watches the body fall and rushes over to Flame Prince who is doused and coughing out all the water he had to intake. He sits up holding his head and weakly smiles at Fionna.

"Flame Prince," sobs Fi as she wraps her arms around his neck and lays her head on his wet shoulder. She knelt between his legs and moved her head down on his chest to lean on as she cried. Flame Prince bends his head down to feel her hair brush against his nose. He didn't want to summon his flames even though he is in a weak state. He doesn't want this moment of being able to embrace her to end. He kisses her forehead as she wipes the last of her tears away and smiles him.

Then, they turn to the headless body and notice something oozing out of it. A menacing laughter echoed through the cave as the body and head converted into something gooey and black. The Lich reveals herself as her deep, black hollow eyes dug into Fi's. With her skeletal hand she snatches Fionna from Flame Prince causing him to summon his flames back. He prepares to throw a fireball at the Lich, but she is clever and holds Fi up like a shield. He puts his hands down.

"Good boy," says the Lich as Fi squirms around in her grip. "I wasn't expecting to run into you, Fionna the human."

"Small world ain't it?" again she tries to wiggle her arms free to hit the Lich with her sword but is squeezed harder. "C-Can't breathe."

"Fio-"

The Lich interrupts him, "Look at you, you can't attack. If you didn't care about her you would already chase me out of here in less than a minute. Yet, because I have her you are weak. Because you have her you are a coward," Flame Prince wields his flame sword and charges at the Lich. She whips him away with her back hand. He hits the wall hard leaving an imprint and falls on his knees. "Look at you! You are weak because of her! Worry, anguish, and pain your feeling because of her!" she squeezes Fi again who has lost consciousness from being held tightly.

Flame Prince shivers when the air became colder around him. He looks up to see the Lich is face to face with him. He can see her yellow teeth and smell her odor that smelled like a rotting corpse. With her free hand she tilts his head for him to look into her eyes, "I'll show you what kind of future you could have had."

She stretches her bony finger to his forehead and slightly touches it. Images zoomed through his head and showed him burning the village of the goblins down with his mother standing at his side smiling proudly. He can see himself walking through a forest with his feet igniting the grass which led up to the trees. The face had on is the usual one, his mouth straight and his brows furrowed.

The next scene is him walking towards the Candy Kingdom with his own treacherous army following behind him. His mother is at the back proudly smiling as she yells at the troops to get ready to fire. Instead of his usual clothing he has changed into a red military uniform. He sees Gumball riding Lord Monochrome locking eyes with him. Banana guards get ready to shoot their arrows and canons as Flame Prince lifts up his right arm signaling his troops to fire. He and Gumball did not look away as arrows and fireballs flew around them.

The vision ends there and Flame Prince backs away from the Lich heavily breathing and checking his clothing. "That not me."

"It is you, and that is what _should have_ happened!" The Lich puts Fionna on the ground between them. He reaches out to touch her but the Lich continues talk, "Plus, how can you and her ever work out?! You are destruction and she is the one who is supposed to extinguish evil! You two are from different worlds!" Flame Prince bites his lip as he stares at Fionna's face. "Plus, don't you see how much harm you cause to her?!" His eyes widen from the statement and he lowers his head down with his hands covering his face. "So, what do you want? I can make deals that I'm sure will satisfy what you _really_ want."


	21. Chapter 20: Regret

[I've noticed its Lord Monochromicorn instead of Lord Monochrome sorry my bad! If I make some grammar mistakes I also want to punch myself for that. It's like 12:37 AM here so I'm open to some mistakes. ENJOY]

"Fionna…" the voice calling her name softly is unknown, groggy and worried.

"…Flame Prince?"

"Yes…it is me," says the voice with the unknown origin whispering into her ear. In her mind she is picturing him staring above her with a charming smile. "Wake up dear," the voice began sounding more feminine for some reason. "How are you honey bunny?"

"Huh?" Fi cringes a little and then fully wakes up when she feels paws squeeze her cheeks and shake her head.

In a shrill high pitch voice Cake yells out, "GIRL WAKE UP!"

"CAKE I'M AWAKE!"

"I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!"

"I'M YELLING BACK AT YOU!"

"THAT MIGHT BE SLEEP TALK!"

"STOP SHAKING ME!"

"STOP SLEEP TALKING!"

Both of them stop to catch their breath and Fi took it as a chance to pry her sister's paws off her cheeks. "Cake…wait…how'd you find me?"

"What you mean girl? You back in the tree house," she hands Fionna a cup of hot cocoa. "Flame Prince had to swim through the water dragging you along to us," she sits in front of her. While taking a sip of her cocoa she can hear Lord Monochromicorn's rhythmic hooves tap the ground.

"Wait! Flame Prince…had to swim? Is he okay?!" Fi stood up quickly yet recoils as her legs collapse on her. She holds herself up with her arms, "Argh! My body…feels drained. It's probably cause of the Lich." She gasps and attempts to stand up again, "THE LICH! WHERE'S THE LICH?! HUH?!"

"FI CALM DOWN!" Cake restrains Fi from grabbing a hold of something sharp and brings them over to the couch to sit down. "FI! What you mean Lich? There was no Lich there when we came over."

"B-But…" she _was_ there. Wasn't she? "Then…where's Flame Prince?!"

Lord Monochromicorn (GOD!) taps his heels in a quick response. Cake translates, "He's outside sitting down on a stump contemplating something."

"…Huh?" Fi throws off Cake's arms, places her feet on the ground and tries walking to the window. Cake pulls her back on the couch.

"No, sit! Rest first! He's fine babe! He even wants to be alone. It's probably a guy thing no worries," Cake drags the lonely cocoa that was left behind back in Fi's hands. "Drink up."

…

Flame Prince is damp and doused, but not as much to lose consciousness. Flare is walking in endless circles around the stump lecturing him about getting wet, risking his life and things that a parent would go on and on about. He cut her chattering out of his head by blanking out. His hair droops over his eyes with dripping water at the tips. He watches the drops fall on his legs with a lost stare. He can't get those flashing images out of his mind.

There is a war that is supposed to happen between him and Gumball. Unbelievable. "She must be creating those images and placing them in my head…" he mutters to himself.

He can hear Flare's voice fade in and out while he crosses his legs, places his hands on his knees and takes a deep breath. Complete silence in order to redeem the last conversation with the Lich.

"_You fabricated those images in order to make me believe you! You are a liar! You are evil, not me! That's not me!" Flame Prince couldn't stop raising his voice. His voice was filled with such disgust, fear, and painful agony. "Gumball and I…are fr-friends," his voice cracked. "I wouldn't do it…I wouldn't start a war. Not become my mother…" he's losing himself._

_The Lich made a chuckle of disbelief, "You were born from evil! Of course, you are evil! It's in your blood for Glob's sake! And believe me…" She leaned in close again, "Those images are as real as they should be. Those images showed what should be happening _now._ Not lollygagging with a human."_

_Flame Prince stared at Fionna's unconscious body and unknowingly placed his hand on hers. Skin sizzled and she made a painful groan as he jerked back his hand. The Lich let out a deep, dark laughter while Flame Prince bit his lip in order to not release a sob. He can't be with her like he wants to be. What does he want?_

_He doesn't know now._

"_Why…are you asking me…this offer? Out of all 'evil' people you know…why me?"_

_With an eerie smile the Lich replied, "Didn't you see me in that reality?" She placed her finger back on his forehead._

_This time he doesn't see in third person, but in first…_

_Yet, he isn't in control of the body and he is still locking in eye contact with Gumball. He flies up using his flames to confront the Prince and forms his flame sword in his right hand. Gumball unsheathes his pink glass sword and shines it at him. The arm without his command stretches out and points at Gumball and he notices the flame at the end of the sword grew bigger. And bigger. And bigger. It's size could swallow up his so called enemy. And it did._

_Just one blast was all it took. He hated it. He hated feeling the mouth that is supposed to be his stretch into a smile and release a hearty chuckle. The banana guards saw that their prince is gone and with that distraction his army took over in a flash. He stared at where the Prince stood and fell and tried to keep his mouth straight, but it always curved into a grin. His hand then clutched onto something that had been hitting his chest softly whenever he moved. The body didn't look down, so he couldn't see it. But it felt like a flat circle with a carving on it._

_His hand felt coldness and the Lich leaked out of the emblem to congratulate him._

_The "reality" ends as Flame Prince screamed in the true world. "WHAT?!" he breathed heavily._

"_At first I decided to torture Fionna around, but then…I saw the future. And I saw you and I were meant to be partners!"_

"_No…No! GET AWAY!" growled Flame Prince while he prepared to throw fireballs. "GET AWAY!" he was yelling again._

_The Lich chuckled, backed away and dispensed into air when she hit the stone wall. "It was meant to be Flame Prince, you can't change that. I'll be waiting for your decision."_

"Flame Prince?"

He gasps when he hears her voice and feels his flames burst from his body and his butt setting the stump on fire. He doesn't move and continues sitting cross legged as he leans his head on his right hand, avoiding looking upon her face. "F-Fionna…"

"Are you okay?" she tries looking at his face directly, but he keeps turning away. "What the Glob man?! Are you mad at me?"

"N-No I'm..."

"Look, whatever that Lich says is not true! She's pure evil dude! PURE!" Fi lifts up her arms to emphasize an explosion. "You're not a coward…"

He is looking the other way while leaning his chin on his hand. "T-Thanks."

He can hear her sigh sadly, "Thanks for saving me. Really…thanks. You're not evil dude, you're a…good guy," he can feel her body warmth closer to him. With courage, he stares up at her as she stares down, "Here, hot cocoa! Well, I mean, maybe I should have left it cold…uhm uh…" She scratches her head and is about to turn around to run back into the house, "Go-"

"I love you."

"Huh?" If those bunny ears were made out of dynamite they would have exploded to that statement. "UWAH! Y-Y-You s-said, b-but I-I thought," she covers her face with her hands. Flame Prince watches her struggle in words while taking a sip of cocoa.

Why…was he thinking of taking the Lich's side?

He smiles at Fi's shaking back while she mutters to herself. All of a sudden her head bounces back up and she turns at him, "I LOVE YOU TOO!"

Flame Prince flushes and lets out a small smile, "What was I thinking?"

"…" Fionna couldn't ask why he asked that to himself because she is uncontrollably blushing and biting her bottom lip. She relaxes herself and begins to lean in close, not caring she would get burned. Flame Prince does the same…just a few more millimeters to soft loving lips.

"DID YOU GUYS REALLY JUST SET A MOOD AND FORGET I'M HERE GLOB DARN IT?!" yells Flare as she jumps up and down between Flame Prince and Fionna. They immediately separate and pout. "Hm?" she notices an imprint bulging beneath Fi's shirt. "What that girl?"

"Huh?" Fi digs in her shirt and takes out a large circular black emblem with a carving of an eye. "What?"

Flame Prince's eyes shoot wide open, "FIONNA TAKE THAT OFF!"

"Huh?!" the eye opens and leaks out black ooze which eventually formed into the Lich. Cake and Lord Monochromicorn run outside.

"LICH!" yells Cake and stretches her arms to pull the necklace off Fionna. The Lich slaps Cake away instantly. Lord Monochromicorn stands above Cake nudging her softly with his nozzle as she regains consciousness, "GET OUT OF THERE FOOLS!"

Fionna is trying to get the necklace off her head, but the chains holding the emblem began to embed within her skin. It hurt, "No! No! I DON'T WANT THIS! NO!" she struggles.

"Then maybe I should possess your body!" the Lich looks at Flame Prince, "You know what happens to the soul living in it." He remembers the headless serpent monster they left in the cave.

Flame Prince reaches to help her, but he can't touch her skin, he can't help her. "Fionna!" he faces the Lich with anger, "STOP IT! IT'S ME YOU WANT RIGHT?!"

The Lich smiles. "Flame Prince, no!" he looks at Fionna into her eyes puts out a hand to touch her cheek, but stops. She is near tears, "It's not that bad…"

"It's bad…if you're hurt," the necklace immediately unhooks itself from Fionna and transfers around Flame Prince's neck. "I'm sorry. This is my decision."

[Yes I have watched the recent adventure time episode and I had no idea what happened with that dream that Finn had...and "felt good." Obviously Finn did something VERY stupid. Happy ending? Thinking about it. Their breakup? Well, I'll just say it was dumb of Finn we all know that|: I will always keep in touch with adv time eps involving FP, but I will not grab off what the directors' wrote. Will I make FP and Fi break up? Well, there will be some drama happening and sadly this story will come to an end in maybe 5 more chs. But don't worry I'm not very sadistic...or am I? Thank u readers for sticking with dis story so far and thanks for the reviews. I'll be sure to repay you guys in due time]


	22. Chapter 21: I'm Your Girlfriend

The Lich's bony hand sizzles while lifting Flame Prince's head to look into her eyes and says, "Drink up." In a quick second a liquid is poured down; his throat felt as if she were making him swallow nails. Fionna retracts her sword and cuts off the Lich's hand. The vial that held the unknown liquid lands on the grass with ash marks where Flame Prince's lips touched.

"Flame Prince!" cries Flare.

Fi doesn't care when the Lich reconnects her hand for she rushed to Flame Prince's side. The poor Prince is holding his head, hurting, trembling…forgetting. "What was that?!" yells Fi, gritting her teeth. Cake and Lord Monochrome stand around the couple in case the Lich decided to throw a dirty attack.

"Let's just say I visited the Underworld before I got here…" responds the Lich while holding the empty vial, swinging it back and forth with her pointer and thumb.

Cake remembers with a gasp, "THE RIVER OF FORGETFULNESS!"

The Lich's smile approves Cake's outburst as Fi faces Flame Prince, whose head is down, hands holding his head. "…Flame Prince?" she bit her bottom lip, waiting for him to respond to his name. Gingerly, he starts to lift his head slowly, uncovers his face, with a confused look at everyone's faces. His gaze pauses on Fionna. "Flame Pri-?"

His pupils retract and instinct swept over him. As if everyone were gnarling rabid wolves with sharp fangs he pushes himself back with his flames to escape from being close. His eyes never parted Fionna's. He can see her eyes held sadness and disbelief as she can see his held confusion…and fear. A step forward fed his fear causing him to throw a fireball towards her. Cake grabbed Fi by the waist before the fireball hit the grass to turn it to ashes.

"Stand back!" he demands. "Who are you?!"

"I-I'm your girlfriend," quivers Fionna. She shouts louder for him to hear and to proclaim who she is, "I'm your girlfriend!" She is holding herself physically and emotionally as tears struggle to pour out of her eyes. She falls to her knees. "I'm…" she looks at the ground as a tear slips out.

Flame Prince stares at her with blushing cheeks, unable to respond to this statement from a girl he doesn't know, never met, at least that's what his mind is telling him. He then notices the necklace around his neck, holds the emblem and tries to figure out the markings.

"YOUR MAJESTY!" screams Flare.

He flicks his head up to see the Lich flying at him with open arms, ready to surround her black cape around him. He lifts his arm to push her away with flames, but is already surrounded in pure darkness. Fi and the others watch in horror as the black shroud vanishes into the night sky leaving nothing but a cold wind.

"Fionna…" Cake puts an arm around her sister.

Fi shrugs it off, stands up and swings her sword on her shoulder. With tears streaming down her face, furrowed eyebrows, and her bottom lip close to bleeding from biting she mutters, "Let's go Cake."

She starts walking to the direction where Flame Prince last stood. Cake jumps in front of her, "Where?! We have no idea where the Lich could have taken him or what she's planning!"

"I DON'T CARE!" Fi stabs her sword in the ground and tightens her grip around the handle. "I…" she quits biting her lip and wipes her tears, "It's my turn to save him."

(This is my shortest chapter...I bet and I'm sorry for that as well as not updating for a month. I've been caught between school and my lack of creativity whenever I thought of how the continuation would go. I stopped here because I like...dramatic...pauses. I would make a ch 21 A and 21 B, but since my bonus already messed up the order of my chapters I decided to make this short. It is getting close to the end, I warn you, but I might create a oneshot of Fi and FP getting it on in the more realistic world. I'm also making a short manga on that ;D all right sorry for more waiting guys, but thanks for reviews, favorites and sticking to dis story!)


	23. Chapter 22: The Feeling of Betrayal

[Well….Earth & Fire just broke my heart. Yet it also gave me inspiration to keep going AND we learned more of FP. Sadly….sigh made me sad]

Flame Prince could see the Candy Kingdom just a mile away from the hill he stood on. His flame twitched with anxiety to set it on fire, claim it his own; he lifted his foot to take a step forward. However, his leg went numb; it shook, and is placed back down on the ground. He can hear her voice in his head, _"Not yet."_

"Who are you?!" he looks around, "Where are you…?"

The voice in his head responds, _"Your source to power."_

"Wait…who said you control me?" he struggles to move his foot forward again, but the same thing happens again. He grew angry and tried to kick, but his foot is held in midair, shaking, hurting. "Get out!" he notices the necklace and grasps on the emblem. Clutching, he tries to pull it off, but he can feel his skin tearing when he tried. He then realizes that the chain infused within him. He cusses at the voice.

"I'm the Lich."

The way she told her identity sent shivers down his spine.

"_Now you listen to me you brat,"_ she demands as pain ran through his head the louder and harsher she talked. _"You want power, it's all you ever wanted, and that girl you met earlier wants to take it away. She's the enemy. And your mom…"_

His ear twitches.

"_Your mother, locked you up in that lamp for your whole life!"_

"H-"

"_How did you escape? I let you out, so we can work together and take over all the kingdoms. This one will be added to your collection soon…after we take over yours."_

Flame Prince scoffs and lets out a shallow laugh, "You obviously don't know how strong my mother is."

"_You obviously don't know how strong you are…I'll show you, it's easy."_

"…"

It's as if everything happened in a flash…

With his and her power they were an unstoppable duo. Her dark magic increased his flame's strength and with it he was able to overthrow his mother. He saw the shock and fear in her eyes when he attacked right when she was about to embrace him. Her prison is the same as his was. She is above him now, peeking from below, seeing what her son is doing.

He laughs at her struggles and jeers at his weak people. His black armor shimmered within his mother's light and his demonic eyes grew red with the feel of power. The kingdom is his, he didn't have to wait. He could have taken it all along.

He wants more.

…

Fionna, Cake and Flare made their way down the fiery path leading towards the towering castle of the Fire Kingdom. The closer they were reaching the gates the more Flare shook with fear. Cake kept her paw latched onto Fionna's skirt as Fi had a stern look on her face. The guards that stood in front of the door flinched when they looked at her, but still put their weaponry in front of the door.

"Uh…you can't go inside," the one on Fi's right said casually.

"Why not?" growls Fi.

"The Prince, uh, I mean-" he stutters as he whispers while looking around, "Don't tell anyone I said that." He clears his throat and continues, "The King is out."

Flare cocked an eyebrow up, "King? Have you forgotten our ruler is a woman?"

"Oh no, she's in the lamp."

"WHAT?!" exclaims everyone.

"Yeah," says the one on Fi's left, "Her son overthrew her. Now it's Flame King."

The group pushes their weapons aside and run to face an empty throne, but above they spot what the guards were talking about. "Flame Queen!" shouts Flare in shock. "What happened?!"

"He did the one thing I feared he would do…oh, why did that prince have to return him back?" she held her head in embarrassment. (If you watched Earth & Fire you'd get this part)

"W-Where is he?" asks Fi with a concerned look.

Flare jumps up, "And why does the place look pretty empty?"

Cake noticed it now, "YEAH! We haven't passed a single guard except those two bimbos the whole time!"

"Hey!" shout the insulted guards.

"He took…my army, including those three girls that you battled. This kingdom is only the start of his powerful reign."

Fi's eyes widened, "No…" She sprinted out of the castle as quick as she can.

"Fi!" yells Cake. "What's wrong?!" she faces the Flame Queen.

"He's going to invade the Candy Kingdom."

…

"What the heck am I doing here?" asks an annoyed Marshall Lee as Gumball sets a helmet that is connected to his new invention.

"You are helping me test out this experiment _friend_," he forces a smile.

Marshall Lee shivers, "Don't do that again." He observes the huge wires connecting to the machine that looked like a portal, except Gumball explained that it is just a mere projector so he can see the individual's desires.

"I hope it's nothing explicit…" mumbles Gumball as he fiddles with the buttons, scribbles something on a note pad and finally reaches for the lever.

"Psh! Me? Want something explicit? Never!" scoffs Marshall with a sarcastic tone as the machine hums while powering up. "I swear if this thing electrocutes me say buh bye to this so called-OW!"

Gumball ignores Marshall's cusses and stands in front of the machine to watch it's progress in forming the images. "Oh?"

"_You promised you wouldn't put the crown on!" the machine showed his memory through his own point of view. He was grasping an arm of a blue woman with white hair, piercing blue eyes and a crown in her free arm._

_Her eyes filled with sadness stared into his as she pushed him into a broken down car. They stare at each other through the window, "I'm sorry Marshall I have to protect us."_

"_NO!" squeals Marshall as the woman places the crown on. He sees her lose her mind more and more whenever she puts on the crown. Ice and snow flying everywhere, blinding his view-_

_CLANK_

Marshall Lee has taken off the helmet and threw it on the ground, "You went _too far_ Gumball!"

"I-I'm sorry Marshall, I didn't realize you and the Ice Que-"

"I THOUGHT YOU SAID IT'D SHOW WHAT I WANT! NOT MY MEMORIES! ESPECIALLY THAT!" Marshall floats out of the room in anger as Gumball is stumped on what to do next.

"I-I…guess my machine shows memories…" he scratches his head with a guilty heart and peers out the window to find a surprise. "What the?!"

An army of over a hundred men dressed in black armor are marching from the hill and heading straight to the castle. Some held spiked clubs, swords, spears or any kind of weaponry they could get their hands on at the time. Others decided to use their pyromancer skills just like the King who is leading them.

"Flame Prince?!" Gumball drops his note pad, runs out of his lab and into the security room, grabs the microphone and screams, "EVERYONE PREPARE FOR BATTLE! I WANT EVERY BANANA GUARD ON…WELL, GUARD! EVERY CANDY CITIZEN GET INSIDE THE CASTLE!"

He tosses his lab coat on the floor, runs back to his lab, stands on the balcony and whistles for Lord Monochromicorn. He hops on his loyal friend's back and orders his archers to be prepared on top as the one with spears the same at the bottom. He joins his archers above the castle wall, still on Monochromicorn's back. He and Flame "Prince" met eyes.

"FLAME PRINCE!" he yells, "What are you doing?! I thought you converted to the good!"

"How d_are_ you call me Prince!" he holds his hand out, threatening to blast, "Why do you speak as if you know me?! And I _never_ was good!"

"Flame Prince…?"

Lord Monochromicorn taps his hooves as fast as he can to explain everything. As soon as Gumball understood it a fireball is being hurdled towards him.

[I actually got into dis so yay! I made it long! WOOH! I hope Finn doesn't get a new girlfriend...I mean there's already like mainly the three (bubblegum, marceline and flame princess), but...you know there was that pillow, and Susan. Hopefully something happens! ENJOY SORRY FOR THE WAIT]


End file.
